Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson will meet at a virtual four-nations summit on the UK’s covid recovery this Thursday.
The Scottish First Minister will join the Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford and the Prime Minister in round-table talks.
It will be the first formal talks between the Prime Minister and Sturgeon since she was returned as First Minister with a renewed mandate to pursue a second independence referendum.
The Tory Prime Minister invited the SNP leader and the Welsh Labour leader to talks after the May 6 elections along with the Northern Irish Assembly leaders.
Johnson’s invite made no mentions of calls from both Drakeford and Sturgeon for wholesale constitutional change in light of the covid pandemic.
Lord Dunlop, one of the Prime Minister’s former advisers who reviewed Whitehall relations with the devolved governments, has also called for a formal structure of regular meetings with devolved leaders instead of ad-hoc summits.
Johnson’s invite was to a an online meeting on how “Team UK” can discuss “shared challenges” facing the UK on covid recovery.
In what is was seen as an attempt to reset relationships with the devolved governments, the Prime Minister invited leaders to work with him “in the interests of the people we serve”.
In his letter, which was also sent to Arlene Foster, the Northern Irish First Minister, Johnson added that the economic challenges would require close working across the UK.
He said: “Overcoming them will require us to show the same spirit of unity and co-operation that marked our fight against the pandemic”.
Thursday’s meeting is understood to be the first formal meeting the First Minister has had with the Prime Minister apart from a congratulatory phone call after the election.
In the call Sturgeon told the Prime Minister that the question of a second referendum was “when, not if”. Johnson has repeatedly said that the focus of all governments has to be on recovery and not a referedum.
