Joint UK and Scottish government statement to align future approach to Covid

Mr Gove yesterday revealed that a four nations approach to dealing with coronavirus was being actively considered by the UK government after a suggestion by the devolved administrations. However he declined to say if this would mean effectively eliminating the virus.

Speaking at the Scottish Government's daily briefing today, Ms Sturgeon said it had been her proposal, and she welcomed Mr Gove's public backing for a joint statement.

“To be frank, my objective was to see if we can get to a point where we align the four nations around a strategy which is about trying to eliminate the virus," she said.

“People have different views about the word elimination, so if we put that to one side, we want to look at coming to a joint approach which makes it clear we are all trying to drive this virus to the lowest possible level, which I would call effective elimination, and keep it there as opposed to having it hover around a certain level in the hope it doesn't overwhlem you.

"There’s some work being undertaken, and I was pleased to hear Michael Gove be postive about that. If we come to a four nations agreement we will publish that statement. Given the geography of the UK if we can all align around the approach that is very explicitly about driving this virus to the lowest possible level and allowing policy decisions to flow from that, that would be a good step forward.”

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