NICOLA Sturgeon has urged Boris Johnson to lead by example and cancel today’s “Union-saving” trip to Scotland.
The Tory leader is due north of the Border to reinforce “the importance of the strength of the United Kingdom in the fight against Covid-19”.
Currently, it’s against the law to travel from England into Scotland without a “reasonable excuse”.
The Prime Minister – and everyone else – can “travel for work” but only when that cannot be done from home.
Asked about Johnson’s journey during the Scottish Government’s daily coronavirus briefing, Sturgeon said she wasn’t “ecstatic” about it.
She said that the Prime Minister was “not unwelcome in Scotland” but added: “We are living in a global pandemic.”
READ MORE: Covid in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon says Boris Johnson's visit is not essential
Sturgeon said the rules against travelling unless it is really essential had to “apply to all of us”.
The First Minister went on: “People like me and Boris Johnson have to be in work for reasons that I think most people understand, but we don’t have to travel across the UK, as part of that.
“Is that really essential right now? Because we have a duty to lead by example. And if we are going to suggest that we don’t take the rules as seriously as we should, it gets harder to convince other people.”
Sturgeon said she and her advisers had decided against her visiting a mass vaccination centre due to open in the next week.
She explained: “In the particular circumstances we’re living in right now, with an infectious virus and this is possibly the most important point, when we are telling other people not to travel when it’s not really, really, really, really essential, then I think we have an obligation to subject ourselves to the same rigour in deciding what is essential, and what is not essential.
“I would love nothing more, and I hope before too long I get the opportunity, to go and visit every major ICU unit in the country to personally thank those who have done so much for us.
“It would not be responsible or essential for me to do that right now. And it would not be helpful to them.
“There’s loads of examples I could use of things that I would like to do right now, but in a pandemic when we were saying don’t travel unless it’s essential, ‘like to do’ is not the barometer, it’s not the test. ‘Is it really, really essential?’ That’s the test.
“And I would say me travelling from Edinburgh to Aberdeen to visit a vaccination centre right now is not essential, and Boris Johnson travelling from London to wherever in Scotland, if he’s going to do the same, is not essential.
“And if we’re asking other people to abide by that, then I’m sorry, but I do think it probably is incumbent on us to do likewise.”
Johnson’s trip comes after a slew of polls have put support for independence in the majority.
Over the weekend, it emerged that Downing Street were ramping up the campaign for the Union with a policy implementation committee.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson's handling of Covid proves he is the worst Prime Minister ever
Speaking ahead of the visit, the Prime Minister claimed that the pandemic had shown exactly how Scotland benefits from remaining a part of the UK.
He said: “We have pulled together to defeat the virus, providing £8.6 billion to the Scottish Government to support public services whilst also protecting the jobs of more than 930,000 citizens in Scotland.
“We have a vaccine programme developed in labs in Oxford being administered across the United Kingdom by our Armed Forces, who are helping to establish 80 new vaccine centres across Scotland.
“That’s how we are delivering for the people of Scotland so we can ensure the strongest possible recovery from the virus.
“Mutual cooperation across the UK throughout this pandemic is exactly what the people of Scotland expect and it is what I have been focused on.
“The people of the UK have stood together during this pandemic.”
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