Nicola Sturgeon says she won't be going on holiday for the 'forseeable future'

The comments come after Boris Johnson was pictured on holiday on the coast of Scotland by the Daily Mail.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she will not be taking a holiday any time soon.

Nicola Sturgeon has said she will not be going on holiday for the “forseeable future” due to the requirements of running the Scottish Government during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Responding to a question about whether she would feel comfortable taking a holiday in England due to the prevalence of the virus in the country, the First Minister said it was to the “chagrin” of her family that she was not planning on taking one.

The comments also came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was pictured in the Daily Mail on holiday in a cottage on the Scottish coast.

According to the Mail, Mr Johnson travelled to Scotland with his fiancée Carrie Symonds, baby Wilfred and their dog Dilyn last weekend.

Ms Sturgeon said her place was St Andrew's House during the pandemic response, not on holiday.

She said: "Unfortunately I’m not having the opportunity to go on holiday anywhere right now.

"I don’t criticise anybody for taking a holiday, that’s not the purpose of this comment, but my place and job right now is here in the Scottish Government headquarters given what the country is living through right now and the volatility we face.

"So I’m not anticipating taking a holiday in Scotland, England or anywhere else for the forseeable future, no doubt much to the chagrin of my family.”

She had also been challenged on the fact VisitScotland had been asked to remove references to the north of England in the launch of their recent tourism promotion campaign.

The decision has led to criticism, mostly from Scottish Conservative MSP Oliver Mundell who said the Scottish Government had done nothing to “shut down” the suggestion that English people were not welcome in Scotland.

It also followed an admission from VisitScotland director Riddell Graham that it would have been “nonsensical” to have included England in the campaign material.

Ms Sturgeon said: “On the VisitScotland point, people in England are welcome in Scotland and always have been and always will be and there is no debate about that but we are in a global pandemic where we have to be careful about whether or not we are encouraging people to come from other parts of the world to Scotland right now based on prevelance of the virus.

"Decisions around the VisitScotland campaign in England were taken as I understand it around the time we were seeing some outbreaks in the north of England.

"There’s a difference between saying people are always welcome but during a pandemic we might not be actively marketing and encouraging people to come to Scotland from any country in the same way we would do in normal times.

"These are just basic public health driven decisions we are having to take as we try to get and keep an infectious virus under control.”

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