SNP MP Philippa Whitford has reminded Newsnight presenters it was the “Prime Minister that moved out of step” with the UK’s four-nation lockdown approach.

Appearing on the programme last night, the party’s shadow health secretary was asked about the diverging coronavirus messaging between England and Scotland – with Boris Johnson on Sunday announcing a new Stay Alert slogan and easing off on lockdown south of the Border.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government has maintained the lockdown, as well as the original Stay at Home messaging – and so have Wales and Northern Ireland.

Whitford told the programme: “I know that we’re discussing England vs Scotland here for some bizarre reason when actually all three devolved countries stuck with what had been agreed in the four-nation plan – it’s the Prime Minister that changed, it’s the Prime Minister that moved out of step.”

The top surgeon, who has recently returned to the NHS to help in the fight against Covid-19, also criticised the Prime Minister’s laxing of restrictions in England.

She told Newsnight: “The thing is the way to control it, as Michelle Ballantyne was talking about, isn’t just to let it run riot again. I mean have people forgotten the exponential growth of two months ago? You need to be able to have not just testing, it’s not just the number of tests, you need to be able to identify those people, trace all their contacts, and isolate them. And that’s the only way that we are going to keep this under control.

“And I don’t accept that sending people back to work in London is a baby step. I mean the pictures of people on London Underground on Monday morning I thought was quite shocking.”

Images on social media earlier in the week showed packed public transport services as people in England were “actively encouraged” to return to work if they could not do their job from home.

READ MORE: FMQs: Nicola Sturgeon: Only England has left four-nation strategy

The presenter asked Whitford: “And that would never happen in Scotland is what you’re saying?”

Whitford replied: “Well I think that when we get to that point where the R number is coming down, and part of the reason it’s close to one is that in Scotland we flattened the curve. If you look at the death curves of the different areas of both England and the home nations what you’ll see is that the lockdown came too late for London. They had a peak. And they’re now on the way down.”

The First Minister, too, criticised reports that framed the lockdown easing as a Scotland v England debate during FMQs earlier in the week.

Nicola Sturgeon reminded the Chamber that Northern Ireland and Wales has also kept their Stay at Home messaging while responding to a question from Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie.