Sturgeon ‘to blame for early dash’

BRITISH travellers had less time to get home from France to escape quarantine measures after the Scottish and Welsh governments demanded the rules be introduced earlier.

Boris Johnson had hoped to introduce the new restrictions – which force travellers to selfisolate for 14 days – from 4am tomorrow to give people more time to get back to the UK.

But the two devolved nations insisted the restrictions be brought in from today.

To make things worse, it is understood the French government was furious at only being given a few minutes’ notice of the change from Sunday to Saturday.

And it emerged that travel industry leaders were told on Wednesday evening that France would not be put on the quarantine list – for the decision to be reversed hours later. The original plan was to impose rules for Malta, Holland and parts of the Caribbean – but to leave France exempt.

The last-minute change – which came after a call on Thursday evening between Mr Johnson and the devolved governments – caused chaos for travellers.

Even Transport Secretary Grant Shapps got confused when he announced the new rules. He told Sky News that the quarantine would not be imposed until Sunday – a day later than had just been agreed.

A Whitehall source told the Daily Mail that there was a ministerial meeting on Thursday, which the Prime Minister was involved in, and it was agreed quarantine would start on Sunday.

But when this was put to the devolved administrations, ‘Northern Ireland were easy either way but Scotland and Wales were pushing for Saturday’.

The Government agreed ‘in the interests of four-nation unity’ and to avoid confusion.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday defended the decision to impose quarantine a day earlier. Speaking at her daily press conference, she said: ‘It is common sense that you would want to impose a requirement, that you are being told is necessary to keep the virus out of Scotland, as quickly as possible.

‘And I think perhaps one of the things that has been raised is that, “Oh but that makes it difficult for people to get home on time.”

‘This is always going to pose difficulties for people because this is stuff that by necessity is going to have to change at short notice.

‘Which is why I continue to say to people if you are travelling overseas at the moment you must be aware of these risks.’