THE SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford has come under the spotlight after it emerged he travelled  over 600 miles from London to his home in Skye three days after lockdown and then went into self-imposed isolation.

The MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber has become the focus of social media debate as pressure grew on the government for Boris Johnson's top adviser Dominic Cummings to be sacked over his decision to drive 260 miles from his London home for child care purposes.

Mr Cummings, who went to his parents' farm with his child and ill wife, said at a news conference on Monday afternoon that he did not regret his actions and believed he acted reasonably and legally.

READ MORE: Anger from Glasgow residents as military plane 'performs figure of eights' above city in early hours

Asked why, once in County Durham, he drove his family on an hour-round-trip to the town of Barnard Castle - 15 days after he had displayed coronavirus symptoms himself - Mr Cummings said he had experienced vision problems during his illness and was testing his eyesight to see if he could drive back to London.

The Herald:

Afterwards, some picked up on Mr Blackford announcing he had travelled the over 600 mile trip from London to his home on March 26.

And Mr Blackford, who has repeatedly called for Mr Cummings to be fired, then explained that he would isolate from everyone "given the prevalence of the virus in London".

The tweet ignited an online debate over whether Mr Blackford should have travelled at all. And most wrongly stated that Mr Blackford was suffering from Covid symptoms.

Sources close to Mr Blackford, said he and other MPs returned home from London, which they were entitled to do, and he has been based on Skye ever since. Many of his appearances in the House of Commons and on TV broadcasts have come from his home.

Sources say he did not have symptoms and had taken the decision to isolate as an extreme precaution because his wife Ann had a lung condition.

The Herald:

READ MORE: Boris Johnson's further easing of lockdown for south of Border due tomorrow with expected phased reopening of schools

The coronavirus, officially called Sars-CoV-2, first infects the cells lining your throat, airways and lungs and turns them into "coronavirus factories" that spew out huge numbers of new viruses that go on to infect yet more cells.

Mr Blackford's tweet stated: "Returned to Skye from Westminster but into isolation as a precaution away from Ann and everyone else given the prevalence of the virus in London. The right thing go do but hard not seeing Ann. #StayHomeSaveLives."

The announcement was picked up online, and started a heated argument about whether he should have stayed in London - which has led to both Mr Blackford and Skye trending on Twitter.

Among those to first leap on the tweet was Jack Montgomery, a deputy editor the far-right Breitbart News group and former deputy head of Brexit-backing Leave.EU during the EU Referendum.

He said: "Will @theSNP be calling for Ian Blackford to step down as the party's leader in Westminster? London to Skye a much longer journey than London to Durham...

The Herald:

"As far as we know, Blackford didn't have special child care needs like Cummings, either. When will @SkyNews be doorstopping [sic] his family in Skye to demand answers?"

But supporters of Mr Blackford say the backlash is politically-motivated and is not based on any breach of guidelines.

The official guidance states you cannot leave your home to stay at another home, for example on a holiday or to visit a second home.

But there are a number of exceptions described by the government. For example, the guidance says that a student is allowed to move permanently to live back at their family home, if they’ve been in halls of residence all of this time.

Mr Blackford, along with his wife moved to the Isle of Skye in 2004, buying a croft that had previously been Mrs Blackford's family for hundreds of years.

Mr Cummings is not the only person to come under fire for breaking lockdown rules.

Professor Neil Ferguson resigned from the government's scientific advisory group (SAGE) earlier this month after describing what he called an "error of judgment". It followed claims in The Daily Telegraph that the leading epidemiologist from Imperial College London allowed a friend, to visit him at home - in breach of official rules he contributed to devising.

READ MORE: More than £4bn spent on measures to combat Covid-19 crisis in Scotland

The Herald: Nicola Sturgeon and Dr Catherine Calderwood

Scotland's chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood resigned after breaching the UK lockdown by visiting her second home.

Dr Calderwood - who had been a leading voice in urging the public to obey the restrictions - was photographed by The Scottish Sun visiting her holiday home on the east coast of the country, in early April.

She admitted it was the second time she had done so during the lockdown.

Downing Street last month backed Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, who travelled 150 miles from London to a property he owns in rural Herefordshire.

Days after chairing a government news conference in Westminster to reinforce the "stay at home" message, Mr Jenrick appeared on Sky News via video link from the seventeenth century manor house he owns in the hamlet of Eye.

This is despite the Nottinghamshire MP's website stating his family live 120 miles away in his constituency of Newark, as well as in London.

Stephen Kinnock, MP for Aberavon in South Wales, was shamed by police on social media.

He posted a photo on Twitter after travelling to London to visit his father on his birthday on 28 March - five days after the lockdown came into force.

They were social distancing, but South Wales Police responded: "We know celebrating your Dad's birthday is a lovely thing to do, however this is not essential travel. We all have our part to play in this, we urge you to comply with (lockdown) restrictions, they are in place to keep us all safe. Thank you."