Inside Politics: Boris Johnson ignores Nicola Sturgeon and heads for Scotland

The SNP leader doesn’t believe the trip is necessary – but No 10 says it’s vital the PM stays ‘visible’, writes Adam Forrest

(Getty Images)

You might see some famous faces on your staycation this year. Centre Parcs, Butlins and other British resorts expect a boom in 2021, now that foreign holidays are off limits. Priti Patel has made clear “showing off” on Instagram while abroad is not essential travel – with reality TV stars’ “work” trips no longer allowed. Nicola Sturgeon has made clear she doesn’t think Boris Johnson’s “work” trip to Scotland today amounts to essential travel, suggesting No 10’s reality TV star stays south of the border for his photo-ops.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

Boris Johnson heads to Scotland today in a bid to shore up support for the Union ahead of the crucial Holyrood election in May. Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg will answer business questions in the chamber this morning. And Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove is doing the morning media round, so will no doubt be grilled on Brexit disruption.

Daily briefing

CHIDES OF MARCH: Boris Johnson is facing anger from parents, teachers and the unions after he announced that schools will not re-open until 8 March at the “earliest”. The PM is said to have overruled hapless education secretary Gavin Williamson – who had pushed for a definite return just after the February half-term. Hoping to keep Tory backbenchers happy with a vague timetable, the PM said he would set out plans to begin easing lockdown from 22 February. Labour leader Keir Starmer urged the government to “use the window of February half-term” to get teachers vaccinated. Labour also described the new travel curbs – hotel quarantine imposed of returnees from 30 high-risk countries – as “too little, too late”. Home secretary Priti Patel revealed that anyone who wants to travel outside UK would have to prove it is essential. Insta influencers “showing off about which parts of the world they are in” will be given short shrift, she suggested.

STAND AND DELIVER: Europe’s big jab row is turning bitter. The EU has called on UK-based AstraZeneca to use Covid vaccines from British factories and deliver them to the continent. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides called upon the company to “deliver on its commitments” – rejecting the idea of first come, first served. “That make work at the neighbourhood butcher’s, but not in our contracts.” AstraZeneca’s boss Pascal Soriot claimed the slowdown in EU supply was partly the result of Brussels taking three months longer than London to seal a deal. But Kyriakides said this was “not correct or acceptable”. The sides have at least publicly agreed to try to resolve the dispute following crisis talks late on Wednesday. But MEPs are muttering darkly about trade war retaliation against the UK. The Times quotes industry sources saying the UK has more doses than it needs – having ordered 367 million in total – and could eventually donate them to other nations.

ROAMING IN THE GLOAMING: There will be no tartan carpet rolled out for Boris Johnson when he heads up to Scotland today. The PM is expected to thank staff involved in the pandemic response, taking the opportunity to talk up cross-border togetherness in the fight against Covid. But Nicola Sturgeon suggested the PM wasn’t welcome. The SNP leader claimed the planned visit was not an “essential” journey, admitting she was “not ecstatic” about it. The Tories’ Scottish secretary Alister Jack suggested Sturgeon should haud her wheesht – insisting Johnson would go “wherever he needs to go”. And Downing Street said it was vital for the PM to be “visible and accessible” during the pandemic. Elsewhere, Labour HQ has attacked Jeremy Corbyn for “wasting time and money” after the former leader lost a court battle over his suspension from the parliamentary party.

HOGGING THE HEADLINES: The big Brexit development this morning is the news that 100,000 “surplus” pigs are stranded on British farms. The National Pig Association has written to environment secretary George Eustice to demand an urgent meeting about it. Customs difficulties are once again the fly in the oinkment, sorry – ointment. Pork exports have dropped to quarter of normal volumes, according to the FT. “If we don’t get this trade flow issue sorted out then we’ll lose these markets around all my lifetime,” said one Norkfolk pig farmer. Meanwhile, eel fishermen in Northern Ireland say they have been forced to find new markets. Sector chiefs have complained that the new trade border in the Irish Sea mean they can no longer sell to Billingsgate Market in London (where the bulk of jellied eels are sold). It comes as a senior police officer revealed discontent among loyalists in Northern Ireland is “growing” over the arrangements forged in the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

DEEP FREEZE ON HOLD: So what does the UK’s response to detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny amount to? Not much, to be honest. Britain will keep the option of more sanctions “under review”, a foreign office minister revealed. Wendy Morton pledged to “freeze Russian state assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents”. It wasn’t good enough for some MPs. In the Commons, Morton was urged to freeze the assets of more individuals – including Russian oligarchs involved in English football. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and Everton-linked Alisher Usmanov were named by Navalny as people who should be targeted by foreign governments over human rights abuses by the Russian state. Former Labour minister Dame Margaret Hodge and the Lib Dems’ foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran backed the idea, saying it was time the government took action.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD: Joe Biden’s administration has paused or put under review a wide swath of Trump-era foreign policies. The new administration placed at least temporarily holds on several big-ticket arms sales to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, while newly installed secretary of state Anthony Blinken said he is looking urgently at a terrorism designation against Yemen’s Houthi rebels that his predecessor enacted shortly before leaving office. Meanwhile, in an outstanding TV rant, the former Republican congressman and MSNBC news Joe Scarborough lambasted party senators who have failed to support Donald Trump’s second impeachment proceedings. “I am a conservative. You come after us, you come after our Capitol – we gonna come after you. We sure as hell are not gonna let you inside our Capitol,” Scarborough shouted.

On the record

“The prime minister is the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Wherever he needs to go in his vital work against this pandemic, he will go.”

Alister Jack defends our roving PM’s plans to go to Scotland.

From the Twitterati

“Boris Johnson repeated over and over his hope that schools would be safe to open in March. He didn’t set out a single measure he is taking to make classrooms safe, a plan to vaccinate teachers or deliver the mass testing we were promised.”

Angela Rayner doesn’t think the PM has a plan to reopen schools…

“So the 8th of March is the date set by Boris Johnson for another massive cock-up with schools reopening.”

…and Dave MacLadd doesn’t think it’ll happen.

Essential reading

Andrew Grice, The Independent: Does Boris Johnson really ‘take responsibility’ for his mistakes?

Vince Cable, The Independent: The four nation construct of the UK is looking fragile

Leo Cendrowicz, The Guardian: The EU’s vaccine bust-up is partly of its own making

Emily Tamkin, New Statesman: What can Biden actually achieve in his first 100 days?

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