NICOLA Sturgeon is asking Boris Johnson for the financial firepower to let her close Scotland’s pubs after admitting the new 10pm curfew isn't good enough.

The First Minister said she would have preferred to have gone further when she cut opening hours yesterday, but lacked the cash to compensate businesses and project jobs.

At the daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon said she therefore intended to write to the Prime Minister asking for more financial powers to avoid being “hamstrung” in the long winter battle with coronavirus.

She said: “There is a danger that what starts to hold us back is not the public health analysis but financial limitations.

“I look at the data just now and I think a curfew on pubs is a positive thing to do to try to reduce transmission in pubs.

“If I had the ability to bring more financial firepower to mitigate the jobs and economic impact I probably would have gone further on pubs, is what I’m saying.”

It came as Scotland saw a record rise in confirmed Covid cases, with 486 infections diagnosed in the past 24 hours.

The jump was the largest so far in the pandemic, although many more people are tested now than in the early months when hospital patients were the main confirmed cases. 

There were two more deaths from confirmed infections, taking the total to 2,508.

The proportion of newly tested people with positive results also rose to 7.8 percent.

On Tuesday, the number of new cases was 383 and the positivity rate was 7.6%.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) regards a 5% positivity rate as a red flag that the virus is running out of control.

Ms Sturgeon said the latest figures were “a real cause of concern”.

In June, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes wrote to the Treasury asking for Holyrood to have more borrowing powers to address the economic impact of Covid.

Unlike the UK Government, which can borrow freely on the international money markets, the Scottish Government has very tight limits on what it can borrow from Westminster.

Mr Forbes asked for another £500m of borrowing power, the ability to convert £500m of capital underspending into revenue, and longer loan repayment periods.

Ms Sturgeon said her request to Mr Johnson would be “in the same space”, but had taken on greater urgency because of the rapid return of the disease.

On Tuesday, Ms Sturgeon announced a “strict nationwide curfew” of 10pm for pubs, bars and restaurants from this Friday, a similar measure to than in the rest of the UK. 

Although household visits have been banned, up to six people from two households are still being allowed to meet in pubs.

She said: “Many people ask me why we don’t just close pubs completely right now. 

“Actually, that is not an unreasonable question.

“If the Scottish Government had the power to borrow money or to extend the furlough job retention scheme - so that we could mitigate the impact on jobs - it is very possible, perhaps even likely, that we would have reached a different decision yesterday on hospitality.

“But we went as far as we could within the powers that we have.”

She said she did not want to make a political point, but express a “genuine worry” she had as First Minister.

She said: “All four UK nations yesterday agreed a joint statement to the effect that we would focus our efforts – and I am quoting from it here - on ‘suppressing the virus to the lowest possible level and keeping it there’. But if that is the objective we signed up to we all have a duty to ensure that our actions live up to it.

“There is a danger that what starts to hold us back is not the public health analysis but financial limitations.

“So I will be writing to the Prime Minister today - I hope constructively because I recognise that the economic implications of all of this for the Treasury are not easy – but I will be writing asking that we do have urgent discussions to make sure we get to a position where the fear I have described is not the reality.

“That either through UK Government action - the extension of furlough for example - or some reasonable but necessary fiscal flexibilities for the devolved governments, through these ways we are all able to reach the decisions we think necessary to suppress the virus and save lives, while also mitigating the impact on jobs.

“We are right now, I think, at the most critical juncture since March. In many ways we are in a stronger position because we know more about this virus, but we must make sure we use that knowledge quickly, decisively and urgently. I want all of us to be in the best position, equipped in the best possible way to be able to do that.”

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: “The UK Government has protected nearly a million Scottish jobs through the furlough scheme and other measures while delivering billions of pounds in Barnett Consequentials over and above the biggest Scottish Budget ever.

"Like people all over the UK, Scottish workers have all relied on that support over the last six months.

"Given the new cases emerging and the restrictions imposed, it's clear to me that there is a need for continued government support for some time to come.

“That’s the point I raised with the Prime Minister in Parliament on Tuesday and followed up with him in direct discussions on Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s through this constructive approach that we’ll get results. We’re only going to build Scotland back stronger after this pandemic if we unite and work together to find the best way forward.

“The middle of the pandemic is the wrong time to raise long-standing constitutional grievances. When Covid cases are rising again, it’s never been more necessary for all of us to work as one, instead of making the usual, tired political points.”