'Nicola Sturgeon must get Scotland out of lockdown quicker', says Alister Jack

Mr Jack appeared on BBC’s Good Morning Scotland on Friday

Alister Jack, Scotland’s Secretary of State, has said that lockdown easing is not happening quickly enough.

The Conservative politician appeared on GMS on Friday to say that Nicola Sturgeon should move quicker to reopen the economy after lockdown, saying that the lower R number indicated it would be safe to do so.

Mr Jack said: “I believe we’re getting to that position, we’re seeing very low death rates now which is part of the five tests.

'Nicola Sturgeon must get Scotland out of lockdown quicker', says Alister Jack

“We’re seeing an R number below one.

“We’ve got to move as quickly as we can to open up the economy again and I would say to Nicola Sturgeon she must have an open mind on that.

“We’ve got non-essential retail reopening in England next week.

“It’s critical to save people’s livelihoods that we start opening up the economy as quickly as possible.”

Mr Jack also added the two-metre social distancing rule should be relaxed to one metre as soon as possible.

He said: “As soon as it is possible to do so with the R number suppressed, I would like to see it move to one metre.

“I think, to get back to something to near normal in the way that we conduct our lives and our businesses, as we see the virus recede, and we’ve seen this happen without any bad consequences in other European countries, we should move to one metre when the time is right.”

The First Minister took to twitter to voice her disagreement with Mr Jack’s comments saying: “Cases, hospitalisations, deaths & R numbers are falling in Scotland because we’re pursuing a careful and orderly plan.

“That must continue. The more we suppress - and hopefully eradicate COVID - the more normality we can restore to the economy. Sustainability of recovery matters.”

Ms Sturgeon added: “*if* we can effectively eradicate COVID - and then control through Test & Protect & policies to mitigate against cases coming into the country - we can restore much greater degree of normality.

“Decisions then about, eg, 2m v 1m are more possible.

“But first we must suppress/eradicate.”

Nicola Sturgeon has said that she is ‘optimistic’ that Scotland can start to enter phase two of lockdown easing on Thursday if the numbers remain low.

This will allow the public more freedom, including meeting up with other households indoors, and outdoor pubs being allowed to open.

Additional reporting from the Press Association

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