NICOLA Sturgeon's government has been blamed by Downing Street for the collapse of a four-nations coronavirus summit.

The meeting, which was due to be held tomorrow, is now cancelled with Downing St saying it was "disappointed" that Holyrood ministers needed "more time to prepare", resulting in the delay.

It comes after a letter from the Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, and Ms Sturgeon to the Prime Minister last night questioning the details of the meeting and the agenda.

Their letter stated that both FMs were "deeply committed" to the summit, but questioned the level of preparation made.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford call for Covid summit with Boris Johnson to be ‘meaningful discussion’

They said they wanted the session to "be a meaningful discussion with substantive outcomes, and not just a PR exercise" and asked for agreement on the meeting's agenda, as well as what it would be seeking to achieve. 

Ms Sturgeon and Mr Drakeford said: "Further discussion between our officials - leading to the summit taking place on an agreed date, perhaps as early as next week - would allow for a much more meaningful exercise, and avoid the risk of it being just a PR or box-ticking exercise.  We are sure that is what we all want."

It was then confirmed this afternoon that the meeting had been scrapped, and no date has been set for a rescheduled summit. 

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Asked about it this afternoon, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said it was "disappointing that the Scottish government feel the need to delay this meeting so they have more time to prepare." 

He added: "The PM is keen to speak to the First Ministers about our recovery, we want to do that as soon as possible but we don’t have a date set’ 

"We want to work with them to find a new date to schedule this."