SCOTLAND'S Deputy First Minister has defended the Scottish Government's decision to implement a last-minute ban of people entering the nation from certain parts of England.

John Swinney said it had acted within the realms of what the public would expect from them after it announced on Friday that residents from Manchester and Salford have been temporarily banned from travelling to Scotland and vice versa.

He told the Today programme: "We have got to take decisions based on the data and the evidence that presents itself, and take decisions which are designed to stop the spread of the virus.

"In our judgment, the rising case numbers and the high levels of the virus in the Greater Manchester and Salford area justified the decision we took and we are taking that to try and minimise the circulation of the virus."

When questioned about the last-minute nature of the ban, he added: "That is something we will reflect on but we put in place very similar provisions in relation to Bolton, which is part of the Greater Manchester area, back in May, and we've just followed exactly the same approach in relation to this decision."

Deputy First Minister for Scotland John Swinney has said Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham's call for compensation after residents from Manchester and Salford were temporarily banned from entering the nation due to a rise in coronavirus cases is not "a relevant point".

"We obviously face many challenges in the suppression of coronavirus," Mr Swinney told the BBC's Today programme.

"We have in place, in Scotland, business support that we have made available to companies to try and sustain them, there will be support in place in England for exactly the same circumstances.

"We have got to take decisions based on the data that presents itself and sometimes that is very uncomfortable data for us.

"We have to act quickly to try to make sure we are doing everything possible to suppress the spread of the virus, and that is what members of the public would expect of us."

Nicola Sturgeon has suggested Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is playing politics in the row over the Scottish Government's Covid-19 travel ban on people from Greater Manchester entering Scotland.
Scotland's First Minister told BBC News: "These are public health measures. I have a duty, and it's one I take very seriously, to keep Scotland as safe as possible.
"I'm sure Andy Burnham feels the same sense of duty toward people in the Greater Manchester area.
"I've always got on well with Andy Burnham and if he wants to have a grown-up conversation he only has to pick up the phone but if, as I suspect might be the case, this is more about generating a spat with me as part of some positioning in a Labour leadership contest in future, then I'm not interested.
"We've all got a serious job of work to do right now and I'm serious about doing that job in a way that keeps Scotland as safe as I possibly can."
Speaking at her Covid briefing on Friday, Scotland’s first minister said: “Manchester and Salford currently have high levels of Covid and so from Monday onwards non-essential travel between Scotland and those cities is not permitted. Non-essential travel is already prohibited between Scotland and Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen.”
Sturgeon added: “Anyone travelling elsewhere in the Greater Manchester or the Lancashire area, I’d ask you to think carefully about whether your journey is really necessary because we do see cases rising across that region.”