First Minister Nicola Sturgeon opens door to different coronavirus lockdown exit in Scotland than rest of UK

Nicola Sturgeon confirmed during an interview this morning that she would be prepared to take a different path from the rest of the country if her advisors told her it was in the best interests of the country. 

The UK extended lockdown for a further three weeks last night but there have been calls for ministers to produce an exit strategy sooner in the coming weeks. 

Ms Sturgeon told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If I was being advised, and if the judgment I was applying to that advice told me that I had to do something different to the rest of the UK because it was right and necessary to continue to control the virus in Scotland, of course I would do that.

“I think people would find it astounding if I said anything different to that.

“But I will be driven by what advice, science and my own judgment is telling me the right thing to do is.

“I think, for the reasons I’ve set out about viruses not respecting borders but also for simplicity of messaging, I think the more consistency we can have across the UK in how we do these things, the better.

Coronavirus LIVE: Three more weeks of lockdown but SNP MP Ian Blackford says Scotland could 'differ' from rest of UK

“But all of us have a duty and I think all leaders, I guess, we may be reaching certainly different judgments on different things at different times, but we’re all, I’m pretty sure, trying to do our very best here to deal with a very challenging and a very difficult situation.”

Ms Sturgeon added: “I’m not going to set out next week the date on which lockdown will be lifted.

“What I’m going to try to do is set out the decision-making framework that we’re operating in.

“I’m not sure I am saying that much different to the UK Government, to be perfectly frank, but I’ll speak for myself rather than trying to speak for anybody else.

“We’re all going through this, we’re all experiencing it slightly differently, but we’re all going through this incredible challenge, for most of us, in the most difficult circumstances we’ve ever lived through.

“None of us have all the answers, I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I do think, as First Minister, in the difficult times I’ve got a duty to try to be as open with people as I can be about what I do know, what I don’t know, about what we’re trying to do to find the answers to the questions we don’t yet have.”

Ms Sturgeon's stance comes shortly after the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford made similar comments earlier today.

Mr Blackford told BBC Breakfast: “Well one of the things I would say is that all of the governments across the United Kingdom, all the devolved administrations and the Government in Westminster have worked very closely across the course of the last few weeks and it’s right and proper that that is the case – I think the public expect to see us doing that.

“But of course the administration in Edinburgh does have devolved powers, we have our own emergency legislation that was put in place four weeks ago, so yes we can do things in our own way.

Ian Blackford

“Of course we took action when we considered appropriate to close schools in Scotland. So there are powers the First Minister, the Government and the parliament in Edinburgh has and they’ll use those powers in the interest of the people of Scotland.

“That’s only right and proper that we do that, but we’ll seek to work collectively with the Government in London.”

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