MATT Hancock has insisted the cross-border co-operation during the pandemic has shown the strength of the Union and how Scotland and England are “stronger together”.

Last night during a No 10 press conference, the UK Government’s Health Secretary declared: “The case for the Union is undoubtedly strengthened by the work we’ve done and shown how over this pandemic we are stronger as one United Kingdom.”

His remarks echoed those earlier in the day from Boris Johnson, who argued people could “see everywhere in the UK the visible benefits of our wonderful Union; a vaccine programme that has been rolled out by a National Health Service, a vaccine that was developed in labs in Oxford and is being administered by the British Army. So,” he added, “the strengths and advantages of the Union speak for themselves”.

Earlier this month, the Prime Minister suggested to Conservative colleagues at a virtual meeting that an independent Scotland would not have been able to deliver the current vaccine programme. One MP at the meeting noted: “He said if it were up to the SNP, then there wouldn’t have been a single vaccine delivered in Scotland. It was a UK effort, in other words, and needed the clout of a big government.”

At the press conference, Mr Hancock highlighted how over the weekend the Scottish Ambulance Service had put out an appeal for extra help and ambulance services from other nations “stepped forward” to help.

Amid the political row over the Scottish Government’s plan to stage its own Indyref2, he said: “To all of those in Scotland, who are considering this question, I would say as Secretary of State is that we are so much stronger together.”

The Secretary of State went on: “It means an awful lot to me and my English colleagues in the UK Government, we are one Union that can pull together when things get difficult. That’s an argument that is resoundingly powerful, that this UK vaccine delivered by Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish colleagues in the NHS as well, of course, all across England, that is a real example of this country firing on all cylinders.”

He added: “I know colleagues in the Scottish Government are working incredibly hard to roll this out across the whole of Scotland. The NHS in Scotland is doing an absolutely terrific job of getting this rollout[done]. It’s all about working together and if this pandemic has taught us anything is that we all rely on each other and that’s best done as one United Kingdom.”

Also, during the press conference, Mr Hancock insisted the pandemic’s “end is in sight” and better days lay ahead beyond it.

“This is not a moment to ease up,” he declared. “The success of the vaccine rollout means we cannot put this progress at risk…We have to hold out nerve and persevere through this difficult winter.”

The press conference was told that across the UK some 6.6 million people had now had their jabs against the virus with some 2.5m having been injected in the last week alone.

This meant more than one in nine adults had been vaccinated with nearly eight of 10 of those aged over 80 receiving their jabs.

Mr Hancock said progress towards vaccinating the top four priority groups by February 15 was “on track” and there were “early signs the actions we are taking are working” with the rise in case numbers slowing and falling in some areas such as London and Scotland.

But he warned the pressure on the NHS remained huge, noting how there were 37,000 people in hospital with coronavirus across the UK, which was “almost twice as many as at the first peak back in April”. He also noted there were “more people on ventilators than at any time in this whole pandemic”.

The Secretary of State acknowledged there was a great desire for an easing of the restrictions but insisted the Government had to monitor the “facts on the ground”. The next review is due on February 15.