A Fife Conservative councillor has come under fire after stating she would snub Holyrood advice on travel during the pandemic.
The row erupted after Kathleen Leslie, a councillor for Burntisland, Kinghorn and Western Kirkcaldy took to Twitter to voice her agreement with fellow Conservative Gail Macgregor, a councillor in Dumfries and Galloway.
On the issue of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans for air bridges, which would allow holidaymakers to travel to certain countries without having to quarantine for 14 days on their return, Ms Macgregor raised the issue of how this would be policed if Scotland was not included in the scheme, adding that she would take her travel advice from Westminster.
Ms Leslie said on Twitter: “Well said. I will do exactly the same. The United Kingdom is one country and my holiday decisions will be based on information from the UK Government.”
Standing by her Tweet, she later told The Courier: “Foreign travel, air transport and immigration are all reserved matters. As I believe the First Minister herself noted during the discussion surrounding the imposition of the 14 day quarantine period for travellers arriving to the UK.”
Well said @TenaciousTory – I will do exactly the same. The United Kingdom is one country & my holiday decisions will be based on information from the UK Government. 🇬🇧 ✈️ https://t.co/ZsiuY7qBMj
— Kathleen Leslie 🇬🇧🏴 (@CllrKathleen) June 27, 2020
Shirley-Anne Somerville, the SNP MSP for Dunfermine, said: “I was disappointed to read these comments from Kathleen Leslie – someone in her position as a local councillor should really know better.
“Reducing public health decisions to arguments over party politics is both crass and irresponsible.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has yet to decide whether the proposals for air corridors should be supported north of the border.
And she said the plans had been announced without consultation with the Scottish Government.
In her daily briefing on Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon said any decisions about measures to tackle coronavirus would be made for public health, and not political, reasons.
“If on anything, whether it is air bridges or quarantine or any other aspect of tackling this virus I choose to do something different from a decision that, perfectly legitimately, Boris Johnson has decided do to for England, then there are a number of things that you can assume will be the case,” said the First Minister.
“Firstly, I have very seriously looked at the evidence and decided that it is necessary, not for political or constitutional reasons but necessary from the point of view of tackling the virus. And if I reach a decision of that nature, and I have reached decisions of that nature in the past, then I will set out why that is the case.”
Fife Council’s SNP co-leader David Alexander said Ms Leslie’s comments were “potentially damaging ” to efforts to contain the virus.
He added: “Everything that is being done is for one reason, to reduce the impact of the virus to the lowest possible level. That will save lives and allow people and business to get back to as normal an existence as we can hope for.
“Most people seem to have bought into this but in the background we have Conservative politicians trying their utmost to politicise anything the Scottish Government do if there is a deviation from what the Westminster Government do.
“This latest rant where elected Tory councillors are actually advocating breaking the rules in Scotland is not only politically pathetic but potentially damaging if there are people who actually follow their advice.”
