Stephen Flynn MP thanked his colleague for "the massive role he has played in making the SNP the formidable force it is in Scottish and UK politics". Ian Blackford's successor as Westminster leader has paid tribute to him after the news he will step down as an MP at the next election. But it will be one to look our for when it comes to next year’s general election. SNP sources have told me there’s little chance the Lib Dems will win there. His constituency is being broken up in the boundary changes taking place before the next election. He fell out with former SNP leader Alex Salmond in the late 1990s, although more recently he has been very close to Nicola Sturgeon.īut there has been a generational change in the party, with Ms Sturgeon standing aside. Mr Blackford has been a significant figure - having joined the party in the late seventies, he has been a member for almost 50 years, although briefly was a member of Scottish Labour. He represents Ross, Skye and Lochaber and lives on the Isle of Skye - getting home after a week in parliament involves a flight to Inverness and then a three-and-a-half-hour drive by car to the island, where he has a small farm. Thirdly, he was deposed from that position by his own MSPs last December.Īnd finally, he lives far, far from Westminster. He's was the leader of their Westminster group for five-and-a-half of the eight years he has been in the Commons. By standing again, he’d need to commit to being in parliament until he was 68. "It is not the time to ease up now," he said, adding that he would not hesitate to tighten curbs on free movement if there was a spike in infections.Ian Blackford is one of the party's best-known, most experienced faces - but it’s perhaps not a surprise for a number of reasons.įirstly, Mr Blackford is 62. He also announced a three-week lockdown for the French island of Mayotte, located off the coast of Mozambique, which has been hit by the South African variant of the virus. "Working from home is imperative whenever possible," he said. He said France's progressive tightening of restrictions had allowed it to keep the economy more open than some neighbours had been able to, but warned there could be no let-up and called on companies to enforce more home-working. The government aims to offer the vaccine to all adults in France by the end of the summer.Ĭastex said the first doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine should arrive in France by the end of the week, helping the government reach its target of four million inoculations by the end of the month. While they only make up one percent of the population, he said, they have accounted for nearly a third of the more-than 77,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.īy the end of this week all retirement home residents will have been offered a first vaccine shot, with a second shot due by early March, he said. but the situation today does not justify a new national lockdown," he told a news conference.Ĭastex acknowledged that many other countries had started their vaccination campaign more quickly than France but he said this was the result of the French government's decision to begin with the most vulnerable people in retirement homes. "We must stick with the current restrictions we already have in place. PARIS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday that the coronavirus situation in France remained fragile but that for the moment there was no need for a new national lockdown.Ĭastex said the rate of infection had not significantly increased over the past two weeks, even if the pressure on French hospitals remained strong.
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