Yesterday SNP MP Stewart Hosie told Politics Live viewers that Scotland has a lower Covid prevalence than England. So smug were the SNP that their neighbours and closest friends south of the border were supposedly riddled with a quasi-deadly virus, they gleefully repeated this claim on their social media channels:
📺 Journalist @pollytoynbee praises Nicola Sturgeon for a more cautious Covid approach in Scotland, in contrast with Boris Johnson.
— The SNP (@theSNP) January 6, 2022
✅ Latest ONS data shows Covid is less prevalent in Scotland than England.
🏴 Get boosted, get tested, wear a mask - let's keep saving lives. pic.twitter.com/5jbaU4kBGq
There’s just one problem: despite Sturgeon’s love of restrictions, stricter rules, the closure of clubs and semi-lockdowns in other hospitality venues, their Covid prevalence stats are out of date.*
While the SNP cite ONS statistics, the government’s Covid dashboard spells a different picture for cases by nation for the last 7 days:
Not only does England have a lower prevalence than Scotland, it has the lowest prevalence of all four UK nations despite having almost no legal restrictions. The lockdown lovers always say they’re following the science… except when they aren’t.
*Previously this article said the SNP’s stats were untrue rather than out of date.
