Nicola Sturgeon calls for closure of building sites

Nicola Sturgeon has called for construction sites in Scotland to close ahead of the prime minister’s daily press conference, warning: “this is about saving lives.”

The Scottish first minister (pictured), who has been attending the government’s emergency Cobra meetings, said that workers continuing as normal pose a serious risk of spreading coronavirus.

Speaking at a press conference she said: “It has been clear to me that there are still too many people across our country who are being expected to, or expecting to, go to work as normal and this presents a serious and unnecessary risk of spreading the virus”.

She added: “This morning I was specifically asked on radio about building sites and hair salons and my advice would be to close.

“If our National Health Service becomes overwhelmed people will die needlessly. This is about saving lives.”

She also said that she was “very hopeful” that the UK government would soon introduce further measures to help freelance, self-employed and contract workers.

The first minister’s comments came as Northern Ireland’s health minister warned that “draconian” measures to restrict movement in Northern Ireland could be seen within days.

Speaking at the Northern Irish power sharing assembly at Stormont, Robin Swann said: “This isn’t something we can wait weeks on, this isn’t something that we will wait many days on. These draconian measures will save lives.”

Meanwhile Boris Johnson is reported to be facing a “full scale mutiny” amongst his senior cabinet ministers and advisors if he does not bring in stricter social distancing controls in the coming days.

The Telegraph reported earlier that the idea of shutting all non-essential shops is being discussed at today’s Cobra conference and is likely to be announced by the prime minister this evening, amid growing anger over the perceived failure of people to adhere to social distancing advice.

Richard Jones, housing partner at consultant Arcadis, said it appeared “almost inevitable now” that construction sites will be forced to shut down. He said: “On larger sites I can’t see how you can justify having 200 people in fairly close proximity to one another, with the additional strain that puts on public transport.”