SNP: PM ‘woefully exposed’ by Covid crisis

Boris Johnson’s premiership has been “woefully exposed” by his handling of the coronavirus crisis, the SNP’S Westminster leader has claimed.

Ian Blackford warned the UK Government’s decision to end the furlough scheme in October was the “height of irresponsibility” and would “kick the legs away” from Scotland’s “capacity to recover”.

People, he argued, were contrasting the “very firm” leadership of Nicola Sturgeon during the pandemic with Mr Johnson’s “U-turn after U-turn”.

His comments came in the week the UK Government changed its guidance on face coverings in schools, days after a decision on masks in Scotland.

Speaking to the PA news agency, ahead of MPS’ return to Westminster, the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, said: “The lack of clarity, the shambles of the situation that we had with Dominic Cummings, a prime minister that makes U-turn after U-turn and I think rightly people are making a judgment.”

He added: “Boris Johnson had a desire to be prime minister, but I’m not convinced... he has what it takes to be prime minister at a time of crisis such as this and I think he’s been woefully exposed.”

Mr Blackford added: “If we don’t extend the furlough scheme... then we’re going to put ourselves in a position that we’re going to have a material rise in unemployment that we could have avoided.”

He criticised ministers’ approach to encourage employees back to work, adding: “I think what is not the answer is a government trying to bully people and to see the kind of threats that we’ve had about people losing their jobs... the public recognise that this virus has not gone away, that there is a risk.”

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has resisted calls to extend the furlough scheme with targeted measures, saying the support cannot go on “indefinitely”.

Shutterstock. Ian Blackford.