Great Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has accused the Scottish government of “hypocrisy” over a travel ban to the North West.
Scots are currently banned from traveling to Blackburn with Darwen and Bolton, and on Friday Nicola Sturgeon will be banned from all non-essential trips to Manchester and Salford from Monday.
She also urged people to think carefully before traveling to Lancashire, including Blackpool.
However, Labor Mayor Burnham said he or his administration had not been contacted prior to the announcement.
The First Minister described the areas as Covid-19 hotspots, although the numbers in the cities are consistent with the number of cases in parts of Scotland.
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“I would ask anyone traveling elsewhere in the Greater Manchester or Lancashire region to think carefully about whether your travel is really necessary as we are seeing more and more cases in this region,” she said in a coronavirus briefing on Friday.
On Sunday’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Burnham said: “I was really disappointed on Friday that the First Minister of Scotland out of the blue announced a travel ban for us stating that people cannot travel from Scotland to Manchester and Salford and people couldn’t help it.
“This is exactly what the SNP always accuses the Westminster government of trampling people.
“The SNP treats the north of England with the same contempt if it brings this up without consulting us.”
He added, “I just think it’s double standards, it’s hypocrisy.
“They did exactly what they always complain to us about the British government doing Scotland.”
Andy Burnham raged in the BBC interview about the holiday ban in Scotland
(Image: BBC Screengrab)
Mr Burnham said he would look for his constituents who were planning to travel north of the border for financial compensation from the Scottish government.
“I’m going to write to the First Minister today,” he said.
“I will seek compensation for the people who may lose vacations and the companies who may lose bookings.
“Why should a couple from Salford who are double stabbed and about to go on a walking holiday in Scotland not be able to walk?
“From my point of view, this is completely disproportionate – we could have arranged ourselves differently if the First Minister had contacted us.”
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Mr Burnham went on to say that there should be “an agreement” which would mean that Scotland and Northern England would have to be consulted before such a travel ban would be put in place.
Manchester Mayor’s comments come as Scotland recorded 1,205 cases of coronavirus with no recorded deaths in the past 24 hours.
The positivity rate also remained high compared to the last few months and rose to 5.8% of all tests compared to 4.5% the previous day.
The NHS Lothian Health Board area had the highest number of new cases at 321, followed by Greater Glasgow and Clyde at 294 and Lanarkshire at 125.
Speaking on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show, the Scottish Government’s Trade Secretary Ivan McKee said a decision on Covid-19 must be made quickly.
“The virus, as we know, moves very quickly, decisions are made very quickly and these decisions are communicated at the level of four nations,” he said.
“Andy Burnham … will write to the First Minister about it, that is absolutely fine and I am sure there will be a conversation about how we can better inform him in the future.”
But Tory leader Douglas Ross said on the same show, “We know that a law was passed on Thursday morning introducing these restrictions and a travel ban in Greater Manchester, but it wasn’t announced until over 24 hours later.
“When Ivan McKee says that the dialogue between the British government and the Scottish government is not good enough, it would take 24 hours for anyone in Greater Manchester to know of a Scottish government decision the day before.”
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