Scotland will stick with its "flexible" five tiers of regional restrictions rather than joining England's national lockdown, Nicola Sturgeon has said ahead of the new system starting on Monday. The First Minister warned that she "will not hesitate" to impose tougher measures, including a second Scotland-wide lockdown, if cases surge and people ignore the rules. But she said her five-level system, which comes into effect at 6am on Monday, "enables us to respond quickly and flexibly as required in areas where we are concerned." Her intervention came after John Swinney, her deputy, yesterday said it would be "foolish" to rule out nationwide measures but he had "great confidence" the new regional system would work. Mr Swinney said Scotland was in a stronger position than England thanks to early action to prevent households meeting indoors, and the shutdown of hospitality in the Central Belt. His stance was backed by Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, who said there was "no point" in putting parts of Scotland with low Covid-19 rates into an "unnecessary" lockdown. Mr Jack told the Telegraph that "huge swathes of rural Scotland" have low coronavirus prevalence and another lockdown would be hugely damaging to the hospitality and tourism industries.