Martin Ivens, Columnist

Is Boris Johnson Still Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?

Johnson appears to have shrunk to the status of England’s chief executive. North of the border, Nicola Sturgeon is calling the shots.

The real power in Edinburgh.

Photographer: Duncan McGlynn/Getty Images Europe
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In the eyes of many voters, Boris Johnson stopped being prime minister for the whole of the United Kingdom as soon as the Covid pandemic began to rage last March. Instead he appears to have shrunk to the status of England’s uncertain chief executive, taking orders from technocrats and scientific advisers.

North of the border, it is Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, who calls the shots. She tells Scots whether they can go to work, travel, or meet friends and relatives. Sturgeon’s crisis press conference is broadcast every day to Scotland as if she were a head of state.