Nicola Sturgeon says she would be labelled ‘The Grinch’ if she did not ease restrictions over Christmas

The First Minister has said that she would be portrayed as ‘the Grinch who stole Christmas’ if she did not announce the five-day easing of lockdown restrictions for the festive period between December 23-27.

Nicola Sturgeon says she'd be labelled as the Grinch who stole Christmas if she had not eased lockdown restrictions over the festive period.

Following the announcement that three households can get together and travel restrictions will be relaxed across Scotland during this period, Nicola Sturgeon urged ‘extreme caution.’

Speaking about the decision to relax restrictions for Christmas at her briefing today, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government are trying to ‘recognise a reality.’

She said: “On this particular occasion, what we are trying to do is reflect a reality for some people, whether I like it or not, sticking rigidly to the current rules over Christmas if that means, for example, leaving loved ones on their own is something that some people might not be prepared to do.

"So rather than just leave everyone to try to navigate that themselves and decide their own boundaries, we came to a decision to try to set out some outer limits and boundaries for people to work within.

“That does not mean we are positively encouraging people to get together over Christmas.

"I want to stress today that just because we are allowing people to create a bubble, it does not mean that you have to do it and if you do choose to do it you don’t have to do it to the maximum at all.

"We are relying on people across the country to make informed choices about whether to come together over the Christmas period.”

Ms Sturgeon went on to say that if she offered no flexibilities over Christmas, journalists would have ‘rightly’ asked today: "Why are you being a Grinch?

"Why is Scotland not allowed to have the same flexibilities as elsewhere and why are you ruining Christmas?”

The First Minister said decisions such as this cannot be taken based on ‘what is popular and what’s not’ but ‘what is the most sensible course.’

Further guidance surrounding the new festive measures is expected to be published by the Scottish Government tomorrow when the First Minister will give an announcement at parliament.

A message from the Editor:Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.