‘English to blame for spreading Covid-19’ – SNP aide
Sturgeon adviser slated for ‘divisive Nationalist narrative’
ENGLAND is to blame for Scotland’s rising Covid numbers, according to one of Nicola Sturgeon’s most trusted advisers.
Professor Devi Sridhar claimed Scots are contracting coronavirus from English and Welsh people, who are generating ‘a stream of incoming infections’.
In an inflammatory article for the New York Times, the University of Edinburgh academic insists that being part of the United Kingdom is hampering Scotland’s efforts to beat the virus.
The piece, published on Friday, also calls for people returning from abroad to be held in ‘enforced isolation’ until they can prove they do not have the infection.
Professor Sridhar, one of a select few academics hand-picked to advise the First Minister on Covid-19 policy, is seen as the chief architect of the Scottish Government’s more cautious exit from lockdown.
The 36-year-old has also been accused of being an SNP mouthpiece after a series of provocative and seemingly politically motivated public interventions.
She had to apologise last month after saying people in favour of the Union were ‘anti-Scottish’ and wanted to see the pandemic get worse north of the Border.
Her latest diatribe comes only weeks after Ms Sturgeon was rapped by the UK’s chief statistician for repeatedly claiming Covid was far more prevalent in England.
It also follows nationalists picketing the border near Berwick-upon-Tweed last month, urging motorists from the south to turn round and go home.
Last night, critics said Professor Sridhar’s claims had no foundation.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: ‘It’s news to me that people from England and Wales were responsible for the outbreaks we’ve seen in Aberdeen,
Orkney, Lanarkshire and Glasgow. It is unhelpful for Professor Sridhar to be feeding a divisive nationalist narrative without scientific evidence to back it up.’
Scottish Tory MSP Donald Cameron said the comments were ‘not only deeply unhelpful but have no basis in fact’.
He added: ‘We have seen clusters emerge in various parts of Scotland but there is absolutely no evidence to suggest this was driven by people arriving from England.
‘Nicola Sturgeon has already been reprimanded for misleading the public about the prevalence of the virus.
‘Now one of her key advisers is stoking up the belief that infections from England are hampering Scotland’s fight against the pandemic.’
Professor Sridhar, who came to the UK from America in 2006 to study at Oxford University, is now chair of global public health at Edinburgh University. She is one of ten external academics invited to sit on the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 Advisory Group.
In the New York Times article, she states: ‘Scotland and Northern Ireland have looked ahead at the coming winter and made a concerted plan to minimise community transmission to avoid a serious resurgence of the virus, by using the summer to drive cases as close to zero as possible and to reopen cautiously.
‘But neither nation has control over its borders because they are parts of the United Kingdom.
‘So both now face a stream of incoming infections from England and Wales, which are behaving more like the rest of Europe, as well as from people returning from holiday abroad and not abiding by advice to isolate for 14 days.’
Professor Sridhar also claimed that Scotland had managed to keep infections low because its initial lockdown in March had stricter restrictions than seen in England, as ‘people could go outside for a walk only once a day and had to stay within a five-mile radius’.
Only Wales imposed a mandatory five-mile limit. Edinburgh and London simply issued guidance.
Professor Sridhar’s profile has risen during the pandemic. But rather than commenting solely on the Scottish strategy of suppressing the virus, she has been a vocal critic of UK Ministers.
She has also described it as a ‘tragedy’ that Boris Johnson is Prime Minister. Three weeks ago, she told Channel 4 News she felt ‘quite lucky’ to be in Scotland ‘because our testing positivity... is very low – it’s under 1 per cent.’
Since then, Covid-19 incidence has been rising north of the Border in common with nearly every other European country coming out of lockdown. There were 339 cases recorded in the past week – 1.1 per cent of those tested – including 51 yesterday.
Edinburgh University said yesterday that Professor Sridhar had declined to comment.
The UK Government said: ‘We continue to respond swiftly to new outbreaks in all parts of the UK.’
The Scottish Government said Professor Sridhar was independent and did not speak on its behalf.
A spokesman added: ‘We continue to work on a four nations basis to manage the risk of imported cases of Covid-19.’
‘Not only deeply unhelpful but has no basis in fact’
Scotland and Northern Ireland have… made a concerted plan to minimise community transmission to avoid a serious resurgence of the virus…
But neither nation has control over its borders because they are parts of the United Kingdom. So both now face a stream of incoming infections from England and Wales…