Swinney slams UK government’s ‘foolish’ messaging
John Swinney has attacked the way the UK Government has communicated plans for lockdown easing, saying Prime Minister Boris Johnson has given “entirely the wrong message”.
The Deputy First Minister was speaking on the BBC’S Good Morning Scotland radio programme yesterday when he said he hopes Scotland and the UK can remain in lockstep over lockdown measures.
Mr Swinney branded messages coming from Westminster as “disastrous” and a “foolish mistake to be made”.
His comments come the day after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab spoke at the daily government briefing, where he said the UK can start to think about the next phase in the pandemic.
He said: “The Prime Minister’s words were in stark contrast to the front pages of most of the newspapers down south yesterday which had clearly been briefed by somebody within the UK government that there was going to be a significant relaxation of the lockdown - and that was entirely the wrong message and a foolish mistake to be made.”
Mr Raab had said at yesterday’s Downing Street press conference: “The virus is not beaten yet.
“It remains deadly and infectious, and we are working very hard right across government and with local government to bring it down in areas of concern, like in care homes, and I’m confident we can do it.
“But, because we held firm three weeks ago, we are now in a position to start to think about the next phase in this pandemic.”
Mr Swinney also said unused testing capacity has left the Scottish Government “frustrated” amid reports of people unable to be tested within seven days.
The deputy first minister promised to investigate reports that home care workers were told they could not be tested yet.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has said it has ample spare capacity for coronavirus testing.
Mr Swinney accepted there was “clearly a communication failure” and said the government would be reviewing their testing strategy on Friday afternoon.
Asked about the apparent delays for some key workers to be tested for Covid-19, Mr Swinney said: “One of the issues that I would have to say has frustrated us at times, is that we have had more testing capacity available than has been used.”
He added: “I can assure you that the issues that you’re raising - the practical, real, legitimate issues - need to be addressed, so that we can have an efficient testing strategy.
“For somebody to be told: “Look, there’s a test available at Arbroath” and you’re living in Glasgow, is just not acceptable. I totally recognise that.
“So we have to make sure that the capacity is used to the full throughout the country.
“I live in the Tayside area and I’ve seen NHS Tayside really stretching the delivery of tests. There are really proactive steps being taken in different parts of the country to reach different groups and to make sure they can be tested, and perhaps we need to have a bit more of that.
“But we’ll certainly reflect on those points in the course of the review undertaken today.”