Scottish election 2021: Tory demands for faster relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions dismissed by Sturgeon

Calls for a faster relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions from the Scottish Conservatives have been dismissed by Nicola Sturgeon as she confirmed there would not be another update on measures until April 20.

Hospitality would open earlier under Scottish Conservative proposals.

The First Minister was responding after the leader of the Scottish Conservatives called for restrictions planned to be relaxed on May 17 to be brought forward to April 26.

Douglas Ross argued that allowing hospitality to reopen, alongside cinemas, bingo halls reopening and the return of indoor group exercise could be done earlier than the Scottish Government’s plans.

However, during a virtual press conference with journalists, Mr Ross said he was basing his party’s position on his interpretation of the data rather than any advice from medical or public health experts.

Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said data meant a quicker relaxation of restrictions was possible.

Ms Sturgeon said at a Covid-19 briefing that while deciding when to relax restrictions was not a “perfect science”, caution was required in order to avoid returning to square one.

The SNP leader was also challenged by hospitality businesses on the decision to ‘pull’ support for closed businesses.

The Scottish Hospitality Group criticised the move to halt the payment of closure support but their position was described as a “complete mischaracterisation” by the First Minister.

During her coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon confirmed schools would reopen fully to all pupils bar those shielding after the Easter holidays, and confirmed no further update on when restrictions may be lifted would be provided until April 20.

Earlier, Mr Ross had said data on positive case rates, hospitalisations and deaths alongside the vaccination programme meant that restrictions due to be lifted in May could be brought forward as part of a “more optimistic routemap” out of lockdown.

He said: “The SNP Government should not keep Scotland under restrictions any longer than we need to because every day that the government delays, the impact grows on mental health, physical health and family finances.

“We are facing a looming jobs crisis that will be far worse if the government holds back on a return to normality. This is the time to back businesses and work with them to start rebuilding Scotland now.

“People are waiting to get on with their lives. They should not wait any longer than public health data shows is necessary.

“Let’s safely speed up our return to normality and get our country on a faster road to recovery.”

Pressed on the evidential basis for this demand during a virtual press conference, Mr Ross failed to confirm whether he had received any medical or public health advice on his plans for an earlier relaxation of restrictions.

Asked whether he had received medical or epidemiological advice on the proposals, the Moray MP said he was using the same data as the First Minister and had come to a judgement.

He said: “The advice and information in terms of the vaccine rollout, the test positivity, the number of people in hospital, the number of people with infections, number of people in ICU, this is all data that is available for us to base our decisions on.”

The Scottish Tory leader also expressed “significant reservations” around the potential of vaccine passports allowing people access to hospitality, travel or events.

He said: “I will look at the evidence, I am will to consider all the points put forward, but I do have significant reservations that I think are shared by many people across government.

"There are many questions that remain unanswered, that’s why it is right that there are trials that take place.

"I worry that we get into a two-tier system that does not allow for fairness for everyone to come through this.”

Responding to the calls for measures to be relaxed more quickly than planned, Ms Sturgeon said it was something the Scottish Government were continuing to examine.

She said: "People understandably look at falling case numbers, falling deaths, falling hospitalisations and say why don’t we just ease up a lot more quickly.

"The problem is that the reason the cases are falling is because we have these restrictions in place so as soon as you start to east the restrictions you run the risk of the virus getting out of control again.

"You can’t have the restrictions in place forever, it’s just you have got to get the phasing of that right.

"If you do it too quickly the danger is the virus will run ahead of the vaccine and we will be back to square one.”

Ms Sturgeon was also challenged on the decision to halt aspects of business support by the Scottish Hospitality Group.

Stephen Montgomery, the spokesperson of the industry group, claimed the “day of reckoning” of April 19 for when Strategic Framework Business Funds – labelled a “financial lifeline” – would stop would lead to further problems for the troubled industry.

He said: “The only certainty the SHG can take from this roadmap is that our strategic grant support will be ended on 19th April. It’s senseless and again highlights Ministers’ lack of knowledge of our sector – 12 months down the line this is pitiful. Grants should be maintained until a business can return to trading normally.

“We are relieved that some hotels and restaurants will be able to open this month, but Scottish ministers cannot just wash their hands of the thousands of operators left stranded and unable to trade viably. These constraints are simply not feasible for most bars and the late-night premises that will remain closed for weeks if not months, and we are calling for a workable solution.

“For a year we have encountered a gaping chasm of understanding among officials and ministers which has led to counter-productive policies that had no basis in fact, for example Scotland was the only country to impose a music ban. Now faced with a level system which is a not viable for many in level 3, the survival of Scotland’s pubs, hotels and restaurants needs an informed champion at the highest level of government.”

Responding, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government was not pulling support.

She said: “It is a complete mischaracterisation of the position. We are not pulling support...we’re doing this in response to business requests actually.

"The payment that businesses will get later this month will be a combination of a final instalment of the grant support for being closed and this is the bit that businesses asked us to do and that will be combined with a start-up grant which will help businesses over the next period with support for getting their businesses back up and running.

"For hospitality businesses that will be a grant payment at the end of this month of up to £19,500, which is actually more generous than if we had just continued the closure support that had been in place which is what we had intended to do but we changed it in response to specific requests from the business community.

"To say that support is being pulled is just a mischaracterisation and a pretty fundamental mischaracterisation of the position. It is not the case.”

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