FM in holiday at home call amid ‘air bridges’ row

Sturgeon hits out at ‘another government’s shambolic’ decision-making process

Nicola Sturgeon urged Scots to consider booking a holiday at home amid a growing row over the UK Government’s “shambolic” handling of plans to ease quarantine rules for air travellers.

The first minister and Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford hit out at Boris Johnson over an apparent lack of involvement of the devolved administrations in finalising plans for 73 territories to be linked to the UK by so-called air bridges.

The scheme means English holidaymakers will from July 10 be able to visit a range of countries, such as Spain, France, Australia and New Zealand, without being forced to selfisolate for 14 days when they return.

The first minister said it was “very likely” restrictions will also be eased for people arriving in Scotland from “lowrisk” countries but further scrutiny was needed for medium-risk locations.

Scotland’s justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, reported he was presented with a list of 40 countries earmarked for approval on Wednesday night, only to be shown a list nearly twice as long 30 minutes before the meeting began and asked to make a decision.

UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps accused the SNP of dithering when Mr Yousaf refused to sign off on the plan but Ms Sturgeon said the final list announced yesterday was different even to the one given to her officials one day earlier.

“When so much is at stake, as it is right now, we can’t allow ourselves to be dragged along in the wake of – to be quite frank about it – another government’s shambolic decision process,” she said.

The first minister denied there had been a breakdown in her relationship with the UK Government but said there was “very often a frustration” from devolved leaders about a “lack of communication” from Westminster.

The prime minister’s spokesman said the proposed changes were “cautious” and it was for devolved administrations to “make and explain their own decisions around the measures that they are putting in place”.

Scotland’s national clinical director, Jason Leitch, confirmed contact tracing related to a cross-border coronavirus cluster in southern Scotland and northern England had likely been completed after one further positive case was identified. He said 23 people had been traced through the system.

Ms Sturgeon announced one more person had died after testing positive for Covid-19 overnight, taking the total number of deaths to 2,488.

A total of 18,276 people have tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 12 from 18,264 the previous day.

Nicola Sturgeon at yesterday’s coronavirus briefing, when she criticised the “shifting sands” of UK policy on the issue of returning travellers.