SCOTTISH Secretary Alister Jack has criticised Nicola Sturgeon's ban on household visits.

The Tory said he’d have preferred the First Minister to have introduced more localised measures, saying the nationwide measure was unfair on the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland.

However, his comments came after Boris Johnson’s chief medical officer suggested England might need to follow Scotland’s lead.

According to the Times, Chris Whitty wanted the UK government to adopt the same hardline approach as Nicola Sturgeon.

In her speech to Holyrood on Wednesday, the First Minister said the decision on household visits was taken after her own chief medical officer and national clinical director warned her that introducing a curfew on its own would “not be sufficient to bring the R number down”.  

Speaking to Good Morning Scotland, Alister Jack was asked if he stood by his criticism made last week when he accused the First Minister of having “drawn up different rules for the sake of it”

“Yes, absolutely,” he said.”We've had a lot of meetings between governments over the summer and I felt occasionally that things, and I made it very clear on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee, that things were done differently, and not necessarily for the benefit of people”.

Asked if he felt that way about the banning of indoor visits, he said the UK government had effectively already brought that in for over 10 million people in England.

“I have no problem with that but I do think consistency of messaging is important”.

He added: “We're not taking a one size fits all, we're doing local lockdowns wherever necessary and I would say that the R number is very high in certain parts of Scotland very low in other parts of Scotland.

“I would feel sorry for the Western Isles, Orkney or Shetland, for instance, on this household ban, because there's very little prevalence of the virus up there. And if you're an elderly person, and you're not able to have visits and you're lonely I you know my sympathy goes out to the you.”

Jack said he didn’t think the ban had “gone too far”.

“This is a devolved matter under health, it's a decision for the First Minister, but it is, as I've said, you know, it's the only part of the restrictions announced yesterday which we haven't agreed across the UK, pretty much everything else we're all on the same page and aligned. 

“And I would have preferred myself a process that we've taken in England, which is the local lockdown measure.”

Chief medical officers from all four home nations met on Monday to agree advice to each of the devolved administrations. According to The Times, Prof Whitty agreed with his Scottish counterpart, Gregor Smith.

Jonathan Van Tam and Jenny Harries, Prof Whitty's deputies, are also thought to believe that the tough new restrictions in England did not go far enough – but accepted that the Prime Minister would have to try less strict measures to save the economy first.   

A source told the paper the plan was a "phased approach", adding: "We're still in early autumn and we shouldn't be optimistic that this won't get worse."

The First Minister said the new restrictions on visiting other households would be reviewed every three weeks. 

There are exceptions for those living alone who form extended households.

The rules will also not apply to couples who do not live together, or to tradespeople or for the provision of informal childcare.