The governments of Scotland and Wales have said that the plans announced yesterday by UK home secretary Priti Patel to require arrivals from certain countries to enter quarantine in a government-provided hotel do not go far enough.
Speaking in her daily coronavirus briefing, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said, ”The Scottish Government believes that a comprehensive system of supervised quarantine is required for this next stage of the pandemic, to mitigate against the risk of new cases and new variants being imported into the country.”
Sturgeon (pictured) said she was briefed by prime minister Boris Johnson along with the leaders of the other devolved nations ahead of the announcement but added, “I think I do have a duty at this point to say that I am concerned that the proposal does not go far enough and I’ve made that point very strongly in the four nations discussions."
She said that Scotland would initially emulate the UK government’s steps on enhancing quarantine arrangements but “will be seeking urgently to persuade them to go much further and indeed to move to a comprehensive system of supervised quarantine” and said Scotland could go it alone next week if a UK-wide approach is not agreed.
Scotland's first minister said she recognised that the new restrictions would be tough and called on the UK government to provide additional support for the aviation sector.
Sturgeon's comments came as a row erupted over a plan by prime minster Boris Johnson to visit a vaccination centre in Scotland on Thursday. Sturgeon said she was "not ecstatic" about the plan and said leaders should follow the same rules as the general public on what constitutes essential travel.
Meanwhile, the BBC has reported that the Welsh government also believes the announced measures do not go far enough.