Boris Johnson ridiculed for ‘Team UK’ comments as he plans summit with devolved nations

Boris Johnson, the prime minister, has been mocked online after he wrote to leaders of the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish governments describing the vaccine rollout across the country as “Team UK in action”.

The letters to the first ministers, in which he also calls for a summit to discuss the UK’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, comes after Mark Drakeford was re-elected as leader in Wales, and Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party (SNP) came one seat short of a majority in Holyrood.

With one of the SNP’s manifesto pledges being a second referendum “after the COVID crisis is over”, speculation is now rising over whether the UK Government would go to court to block such a move. 

Sturgeon told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that it would be “absurd and completely outrageous” if they did, while Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove repeatedly swerved questions on the issue in an interview with Sky News.

In the letter to Scotland’s first minister, Johnson writes: “The dedicated and hardworking staff of NHS Scotland have ensured jabs have been put into arms from Gretna to John o’ Groats. This is Team UK in action, and I recommit the United Kingdom Government to working with the Scottish Government in this cooperative spirit.”

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The Team UK label hasn’t gone down well on Twitter, however, with many people ridiculing the prime minister’s latest phrase:

Something tells us that ‘summit’ might not go to plan when “Team UK” finally comes together.