Nicola Sturgeon bowed to pressure to ease Scotland’s lockdown today, allowing beer gardens and non-essential shops to re-open from next month – and three family groups to meet indoors.
The First Minister announced to the Scottish Parliament that she was following Boris Johnson’s example in England and relaxing restrictions introduced in March.
But the changes will come into effect more slowly than south of the border, where they will be introduced on July 4.
In Scotland, beer gardens can reopen on July 6, non-essential shops within indoor shopping centres from July 13.
And in a step that goes further than measures revealed by the Prime Minister yesterday, households will be able to meet indoors with people from up to two other households from July 15.
It came as YouGov research found broad support in Scotland for the unwinding unveiled by the PM yesterday, which takes effect in England on July 4.
Ms Sturgeon told MSPs Scotland’s easign of lockdown would be ‘slower than England’s – but it is, in my view, right for our circumstances and, I hope, more likely to be sustainable than if we went faster’.
She added that despite the positive trends in the virus in recent weeks, it is still expected to ‘pose a real and significant threat for some time to come’.
She added: ‘We must keep working to drive it down further, towards the point of elimination – because that then gives us the best chance of keeping it under control through testing, surveillance, contact tracing and the application of targeted suppression measures when necessary.
‘The prize if we succeed is getting greater normality back in our lives, maybe more quickly than we would have envisaged a few weeks ago, and without reversals back into blanket lockdown.’
Ms Sturgeon told MSPs Scotland’s easign of lockdown would be ‘slower than England’s – but it is, in my view, right for our circumstances and, I hope, more likely to be sustainable than if we went faster’.
YouGov research found broad support for the unwinding unveiled by the PM yesterday, which takes effect on July 4. There was also backing among the Scots surveyed
In England the two-metre rule is being halved, where other precautions are in place, to save the crippled economy. Meanwhile, households are being allowed to meet up indoors for the first time in months.
However, Ms Sturgeon has until now rejected calls for emulate the loosening.
She said the two-metre rule was being reviewed in the coming weeks, but her scientists still believed it needed to remain in place and the position in Scotland ‘remains the same’.
The snap YouGov poll last night found across the UK 47 per cent of the public believed Mr Johnson’s package of changes were ‘about right’.
A further seven per cent thought they did not go far enough.
Some 37 per cent said they went too far.
Among Scots surveyed, a slightly lower 40 per cent indicated broad support for the relaxation, with another eight per cent saying they should have gone further.
Some 38 per cent were opposed to the loosening. The Scottish figures are a subset of the total sample 2,264 people polled, and will be subject to more margin for error, but still suggest voters are generally behind the changes.
Evidence of splits within the UK have been mounting, with Mr Johnson hitting out this afternoon at the ‘unnecessary’ five-mile limit on travelling away from home in Wales.
The PM also accused Labour first minister Mark Drakeford of ‘blessed amnesia’ for claiming that the Westminster government had not been keeping in touch over the coronavirus crisis.
As Mr Johnson was speaking in Westminster yesterday, Ms Sturgeon told her daily briefing in Edinburgh that her scientific group would report to her on the two-metre rule by July 2 – but stressed the advice was still in support of the limit.
She said: ‘Until then, the position here in Scotland remains the same. We are asking people to keep two metres physical distancing.
‘Any changes from other parts of the UK, while we will look at the evidence underpinning those very carefully, will not apply here at this stage.’
In the Commons, Mr Johnson insisted the differences in approach between the home nations were not great.
He said he expected Ms Sturgeon to bring forward easings similar to the English ones soon.
But he criticised the five-mile limit on travel from home imposed by the Labour administration in Wales.
The snap YouGov poll last night found across the UK 47 per cent of the public believed the package of lockdown changes announced by Mr Johnson (pictured in Downing Street today) were ‘about right’
‘I have my doubts about the five mile rule in Wales and wondered whether that might be reviewed,’ he said.
He added later: ‘I am not sure the five mile limit rule is entirely necessary and perhaps that needs to be withdrawn.’
Mr Johnson swiped that Mr Drakefored appeared to be suffering from ‘blessed amnesia’, after complaining that he had not had contact from Westminster.
He said the UK government was in ‘daily contact’ with the devolved administrations.