PM launches savage attack on SNP over delivery of Covid vaccine
BORIS Johnson has launched an astonishing attack on Nicola Sturgeon, claiming Scotland would not have access to one single vaccine if it had been up to the SNP.
The Prime Minister is understood to have criticised Miss Sturgeon during a private meeting of the 1922 Tory backbench committee on Tuesday evening.
During the virtual meeting, he is understood to have said the vaccine programme was a ‘UK effort’ and had been delivered thanks to the strength of the Union.
Speaking to The Guardian, one MP in attendance said: ‘Essentially, the point the Prime Minister was making is that the UK is a major country, we’ve got sufficient clout to get the vaccines rolled out. He did actually mention that we were ahead of the rest of Europe.
‘He said if it were up to the SNP then there wouldn’t have been a single vaccine delivered in Scotland. It was a UK effort, in other words, and needed the clout of a big government.’
It is understood the comments on Miss Sturgeon were in response to a question asked by a Scottish Conservative MP.
Yesterday Mr Johnson’s press secretary Allegra Stratton said it was not part of her role to talk about private meetings and said she had not been present at the 1922 Committee.
However, she added: ‘There is no doubt that the Union has been critical in the development, production and administration of the vaccines and indeed across a range of measures during this pandemic we have all worked together to provide for the British people. I think Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday they’ve had 100,000 vaccines. It’s great news for the Scottish people, but it’s been a collective effort.’
The comments echo those made by Mr Johnson during an exchange with SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford following his speech on the lockdown in England.
When quizzed over support for business going forward, Mr Johnson said that the country had ‘ benefited massively from the strength of the natural strength of the UK economy’.
The Prime Minister added: ‘And the mere fact that Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, every part of the United Kingdom, has received the virus is entirely thanks to the strength of our national our national NHS.
‘It is it is thanks to our United Kingdom NHS, thanks to the strength of UK companies that we are able to distribute a life-saving vaccine across the whole of our country. And I think that is a point that he might bear in mind.’
According to the UK Government, it has ‘secured early access’ to 375million doses of the seven ‘most promising’ vaccines – including Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford AstraZeneca.
These are being distributed across the UK, with devolved nations being provided with a share of the vaccines as they arrive.
A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: ‘It’s a huge relief and source of optimism at a difficult time that the Covid vaccine is now being rolled out across Scotland and the UK.’
A spokesman for the SNP said: ‘These comments are as crass as they are inaccurate and show once again how desperate the Tories are to politicise the pandemic.’
He added: ‘The development of vaccines has been a global effort and our focus is on ensuring we vaccinate people in Scotland as quickly and as safely as it is possible to do so.’
During the discussions between Mr Johnson and the SNP Westminster l eader, Mr Blackford urged the Government to close the UK borders to ‘all but essential travel’ to prevent the spread of new strains of Covid.
Mr Blackford told the Commons: ‘Nobody would say that this Prime Minister is one step ahead of tomorrow or acts and shows leadership in dealing with this health pandemic.’
He added: ‘The PM was slow to act in the spring of 2020, slow in the autumn and here again, reacts after the events to the threats that we all face.
‘On travel, is the Prime Minister prepared to l earn f r om his Government’s past mistakes?
‘Will he consider closing the UK border to all but essential travel to prevent new strains of the virus spreading?’
The Prime Minister replied: ‘As I said j ust now, we will make sure that we protect our borders from the readmission of the virus and he has seen what we did already in the case of the South African strain.
‘And we’ll bring forward further measures to stop the readmission of the virus.’
‘Needed clout of a big government’ ‘Thanks to United Kingdom NHS’