Nicola Sturgeon mocked by Rees-Mogg for ‘modelling herself on Trump’ with latest threat

It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in Parliament “there is no border between Scotland and England”. Ms Sturgeon said “she couldn’t rule out” quarantining visitors from other parts of the UK to control the number of coronavirus cases in Scotland.

She said in a St Andrews House briefing: “If we did see an ongoing divergence between infection rates and levels in Scotland and other parts of the UK, from a public health perspective, we would require to give consideration about how we mitigate that and guard against infection rates rising in Scotland as a result.”

But the leader of the House of Commons said it may not be a “bricks and mortar” structure in the vein of Hadrian’s Wall or US President Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico, but Ms Sturgeon wants a “metaphorical wall”.

During Business Questions on Thursday, Mr Rees-Mogg criticised Ms Sturgeon’s “shameful” remarks after SNP Commons business spokesman Tommy Sheppard said the Government is “led by someone who thinks the border does not exist”.

But Mr Rees-Mogg slated the SNP MP and added: “He mentions borders, and I noticed that Nicola Sturgeon wishes to have a wall – perhaps she is modelling herself on other leading political figures – between England and Scotland.

“But, as my right honourable friend the Prime Minister said, there is no border between England and Scotland and it was shameful to call for a border of that type of kind to be erected to stop people travelling freely between constituent parts of the United Kingdom.

“One never thought that Nicola Sturgeon would model herself on American political figures and want to build a wall – at least a metaphorical wall if not actually getting like Hadrian with the bricks and mortar.”

It comes after Scotland’s First Minister criticised the UK Government for failing to consult her ahead of announcing proposed changes to the quarantine regime.

The FM said she wanted to “take a bit of time to consider the public health impact” of the plan and the evidence underpinning it.

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A Scottish Government spokesman, added: “To allow us to move out of lockdown, it is critical that we keep the transmission of the virus as low as possible, and that includes transmission from high to low-risk areas.

“Scotland has in place enhanced surveillance to identify those risks and has long-established powers, enhanced by recent coronavirus legislation, to manage them.

“We are having to take unprecedented steps to deal with the challenges that the pandemic brings.

“As we hopefully suppress the virus further, we will continue to consider any measures that might be necessary to protect against the risk of imported cases of the virus.”