BORIS Johnson will chair a coronavirus recovery summit with Nicola Sturgeon and the leaders of the devolved nations this afternoon.
The rearranged meeting was due to take place last week but was postponed after the first ministers of Wales and Scotland pulled out because they wanted it to be a “meaningful discussion with substantive outcomes”.
Both Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford subsequently wrote to the Prime Minister asking for more substance and clarity about the summit.
Johnson called for the meeting in the wake of the Welsh and Scottish parliamentary elections last month as he called for a united approach “to overcome the significant challenges of the Covid recovery”.
The virtual summit is due to be attended by the four nations’ first ministers and deputy first ministers as well as Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove and the UK Government’s secretaries of state for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
READ MORE: Scotland is heading into third wave of Covid pandemic, Jason Leitch warns
Ahead of the meeting, Gove said: “I am delighted that the leaders of the devolved administrations all responded positively to the Prime Minister’s invitation to join this important meeting on Covid recovery.
“Throughout the pandemic, we have worked together to stop the spread of the virus and to roll out life-saving vaccines.
“Our joint success has shown the world what we can achieve as a United Kingdom.
“We must take the same approach to the difficult challenge of rebuilding our economy and public services from the damaging impact of Covid-19.
“It will not be a quick or easy job, but we will all do better if we face the challenge together.”
Following the meeting’s postponement last week, a spokesman for the Scottish First Minister said: “The summit would be going ahead tomorrow if the UK Government were remotely prepared for it.
“As we and the Welsh government made clear in our letter to the Prime Minister, what they had suggested was simply a PR exercise without proper substance.
“We have asked for a detailed agenda to be prepared for a serious meeting, which is what this subject deserves.”
The summit comes two days after the First Minister announced an easing of restrictions with many parts of the country moving into level 1, the second lowest, on Saturday.
Glasgow will move on the same day from level 3 to level 2, allowing people in the city to meet friends and family indoors.
Meanwhile, the latest Scottish Government figures showed Scotland yesterday recorded one death of a coronavirus patient and 677 new cases in the previous 24 hours.
This meant the death toll under this daily measure, of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days, was 7670.
The daily data update indicated the daily test positivity rate is 2.8%, down from 3.1% the previous day.
A total of 114 people were in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19, up from 106 the day before, with 10 patients in intensive care – no change.
As of yesterday, 3,286,26 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 2,106,177 have received their second dose.
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