Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has called for an extension on the original Brexit trade deal deadline stating that the pandemic “demands our 100% attention”.
As the news that a new strain of the virus hit the UK, many EU countries, including France, shut their borders to the UK.
Nicola Sturgeon has urged the Prime Minister to seek an extension for the Brexit transition period.
It’s now imperative that PM seeks an agreement to extend the Brexit transition period. The new Covid strain – & the various implications of it – means we face a profoundly serious situation, & it demands our 100% attention. It would be unconscionable to compound it with Brexit.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 20, 2020
She said Britain faced a “profoundly serious situation” with the new mutation of COVID-19, which “demands our 100% attention”.
“It would be unconscionable to compound it with Brexit,” she tweeted on Sunday night.
Simon Hoare, a Tory MP and chair of the Commons’ Northern Ireland affairs select committee, also said he wanted the clock “temporarily stopped” on trade talks.
“There’s no parliamentary time to scrutinise and agree a deal and daily clarity of the dangers to our already pressured economy of no-deal is alarming,” he tweeted. “Time for maturity.”
