THE mayor of Greater Manchester is considering taking legal action against the Scottish Government over its decision to impose a travel ban due to rising Covid-19 cases.

Andy Burnham claimed the restrictions are an “infringement on civil liberties” for people who have had both vaccines but are still prevented from travelling north for a holiday.

He has also tasked officials with establishing how much the decision has cost Greater Manchester, after Holyrood knocked back his demands to pay compensation to those affected by the ban.

The spat began on Friday, when the First Minister The First Minister announced that all non-essential travel to Manchester and Salford would be banned from Monday.

Burnham complained that neither he nor his administration were contacted before the announcement – and warned people and businesses have been left out of pocket due to cancelled trips.

READ MORE: Furious Andy Burnham accuses Nicola Sturgeon of 'insulting' Manchester

After taking flak from the mayor yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon suggested he was inflaming tensions to raise his political profile ahead of a potential Labour leadership bid.

Burnham hit back, accusing the First Minister of “insulting” the people of Greater Manchester by announcing the changes “in a quite high-handed way without any notice”.

Speaking to Scottish journalists later, he claimed the Scottish Government was on “shaky” legal ground and revealed he had consulted lawyers about the dispute.

“If there’s hundreds of people that are out of pocket by hundreds of pounds, you know I will represent them in the best way,” the Labour politician said, according to the Times. “If there is a legal redress route for them, then I think that should be considered.”

The Manchester travel ban brought the areas under the same restrictions as Holyrood imposed on nearby Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen, which were subject to travel bans last month.

Suggesting the Scottish Government’s policy was inconsistent, Burnham contrasted infection rates in Bolton, which has 255.3 cases per 100,000, and Dundee, which has 303.4 per 100,000 and is under no travel restrictions.

The rates in Manchester and Salford are 346.6 and 335.3 per 100,000 people respectively.

READ MORE: Burnham didn't tell Sarwar he would attack Nicola Sturgeon on travel ban

Yesterday, deputy first minister John Swinney dismissed the mayor’s request for financial renumeration as not "a relevant point".

Sturgeon added: "These are public health measures. I have a duty, and it's one I take very seriously, to keep Scotland as safe as possible.

"I'm sure Andy Burnham feels the same sense of duty toward people in the Greater Manchester area.

"I've always got on well with Andy Burnham and if he wants to have a grown-up conversation he only has to pick up the phone but if, as I suspect might be the case, this is more about generating a spat with me as part of some positioning in a Labour leadership contest in future, then I'm not interested.

"We've all got a serious job of work to do right now and I'm serious about doing that job in a way that keeps Scotland as safe as I possibly can.”

Responding to Burnham’s latest comments, SNP MP Pete Wishart added: “He’s now got three days of attention out of this now, all assisting his future Labour leadership campaign.

“Here’s the lesson for the aspiring and ambitious in Labour – attack Scotland and its government, the media will fall in meekly behind. It can’t fail…”