A CONTROVERSIAL travel ban has left a number of Greater Manchester residents "seriously out of pocket" after they were forced to cancel planned trips to Scotland, the region's mayor has claimed.
In a letter today to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Andy Burnham said he had been contacted over the weekend by constituents "who had holidays booked and are now unable to get a refund".
Mr Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester and a former Labour MP, called on the Scottish Government to reimburse those affected for their losses.
He cited the example of one fully vaccinated couple who told him they had been "virtually isolated" for 18 months, test themselves for Covid twice a week, have never tested positive, but have been refused a refund on their planned holiday in Scotland because their daughter had booked the trip for them and her address means she is not covered by the travel ban.
Mr Burnham said: "This couple say they have lost over £1000. I believe they, and others like them, are entitled to compensation.
"Your suggestion that our concerns are all about politics and nothing else is frankly insulting to people in this position."
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In a subsequent online Q&A with journalists, Mr Burnham criticised a "lack of consistency", saying: "I cannot understand why Bolton is now under a travel ban and Dundee is not, when it [Bolton] has less than 300 cases per 100,000 and falling."
Mr Burnham said he could not rule out legal action over individuals' losses, adding that it was "not a small number of people and not a small amount of money".
It came hours after Ms Sturgeon accused Mr Burnham of seeking to "generate a spat" over the travel restriction between Scotland and parts of north west England.
The First Minister, who received her second vaccination at Glasgow's SSE Hydro today, defended her decision to curb non-essential travel to and from Manchester and Salford where Covid rates are running at 340 per 100,000.
Scotland is averaging 140 cases per 100,000, with a high of 303 per 100,000 in Dundee.
Existing travel restrictions to and from Scotland with Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton also remain in place.
Following the surprise announcement on Friday of the Manchester area travel ban - which came into effect today - Mr Burnham branded the measure "disproportionate" and accused the Scottish Government of doing "exactly what they always complain that the UK Government does to Scotland" by failing to notify him in advance.
Ms Sturgeon said she had a duty "to keep Scotland as safe as possible", adding: "I've always got on well with Andy Burnham and if he wants to have a grown-up conversation he only has to pick up the phone.
"But if, as I suspect might be the case, this is more about generating a spat with me as part of some positioning in a Labour leadership contest in future, then I'm not interested.
"We've all got a serious job of work to do right now and I'm serious about doing that job in a way that keeps Scotland as safe as I possibly can."
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Mr Burnham responded that it was "normal practice and common courtesy for those who are making decisions which are impacting on others to initiate communications".
He added: "It's not about political posturing and internal Labour politics."
Earlier, Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, said Mr Burnham's call for compensation is not "a relevant point" because businesses should be able to reimburse customers from Covid support funds.
Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, he said: "We have in place, in Scotland, business support that we have made available to companies to try and sustain them, there will be support in place in England for exactly the same circumstances."
It comes amid signs that the growth in Covid infections in Scotland is beginning to slow, with half the total population on track to be fully vaccinated by next week.
The latest figures show that there were a total of 8,034 new coronavirus cases detected in Scotland in the past seven days.
This is an increase of 26 per cent compared to 6,372 cases in the week ending June 14, but compares to a peak week-on-week increase of 47%, from 3568 to 5258 cases, between the week ending May 31 and the week ending June 7.
Hospital admissions, though rising, have also increased at a much slower rate compared to previous waves, leading Scottish Government modellers downgrade their projections for bed occupancy after new data emerged indicating that the vaccines are more effective than thought at preventing serious illness caused by the new Delta variant.
In their most recent 'Modelling the Epidemic' report, published on Friday, epidemiologists forecast that there would be around 300 patients in hospital in Scotland with Covid by early July under a worse-case scenario, significantly lower than a previous projection of around 750 by the end of June.
There are currently 158 people in hospital, up from 128 a week ago.
The report added: "Scientists have been scrutinising Delta variant cases and now believe its impact on hospital admissions will be dramatically lower than previous feared. In addition, our estimate infections have fallen as the case data has not increased as much as projected."
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