Boris Johnson rebuffed calls for the Cobra emergency committee to be convened following the discovery of the Omicron variant and amid reports the US was about to tighten its travel rules.
During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (1 December), the SNP’s leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, said: “We find ourselves at another very difficult moment in this pandemic”, adding leaked advice from Sage, the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, suggested current international travel restrictions would identify “significantly fewer cases”.
“That is exactly the same advice the prime minister received from the first ministers of Scotland and Wales on Monday and he has ignored that advice," said Blackford. “Since then, other countries like Ireland and the US are moving rapidly on international travel to protect their people.”
He called for a four nation Cobra meeting “to tighten travel restrictions”, adding: “Or will he [Johnson] continue to ignore the Scottish government, the Welsh government and his own Sage advisors and imperil the health of the public of these islands?”
Johnson said there would be “abundant opportunities” to work together, but said Blackford was “simply wrong” about steps taken to prevent the Omicron variant spreading.
“This country was actually the first to respond," said Johnson. "For the 10 countries that are most likely to spread Omicron, we have put them on the red list so they [arrivals] not only have pre-departure tests, but they are also quarantined.
“From every other country in the world, 100% of the passengers arriving must take a PCR test and they cannot get out of quarantine unless they test negative.
“Those are balanced and proportionate measures designed to protect the British people from the Omicron variant and that’s the right approach to take.”
