Boris Johnson has taken a swipe at the First Minister in Parliament for "uncannily similar" announcements on covid. 

He made the remarks in response to a question from John Lamont, Conservative MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, who said his constituents were "missing out" on the new easing of lockdown rules Mr Johnson announced, as they only apply to England. 

Mr Lamont said: "My constituents will not get the benefits of the measures being announced today as the First Minister of Scotland is delaying Scotland's release from lockdown."

He added: "Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the First Minister, should share the evidence as to justify why Scotland is taking a different approach from the rest of the United Kingdom." 

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The Prime Minister said he was glad Mr Lamont "has his finger on the pulse" and explained: "I was earlier informed that the First Minister of Scotland was about to make a statement, as she has done several times before, uncannily similar to the one that I've just given.

"If I'm misinformed about that, I do think that the it remains nonetheless the case that the similarities between our approaches greatly outweigh the differences."

The First Minister today announced the 2m social distancing rule in Scotland would remain in place just now. 

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She said: "On all of these decisions we will continue to proceed very carefully.

"It's why for example, I've commissioned further work by our scientific advisory group.

"One key issue we have asked about is the issue of physical distancing.

"The Scottish Government is clear that the advice and evidence we have right now supports physical distancing at two metres in order to reduce the risk of virus transmission."