Johnson rejects call for further travel restrictions

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?”