Boris Johnson has rejected calls from Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford to toughen up the UK’s response to the Omicron coronavirus variant.
The two first ministers have written to Mr Johnson urging him to extend Covid self-isolation travel rules for all UK arrivals from two to eight days to curb the spread of the new strain.
They also demanded an immediate emergency meeting of the COBRA committee and pushed for the Prime Minister to lay the groundwork for a potential return of the furlough scheme, which closed two months ago after costing more than £70billion, just in case the situation worsens.
But Downing Street swiftly rejected the pleas from Ms Sturgeon and Mr Drakeford, arguing that the Government’s initial response to the variant is still the correct one.
