SCOTLAND’S Parliament should be shut to the public due to coronavirus to “substantially cut the risk to elected members” and keep it open longer, Scottish Labour said today.

The party’s business manager Elaine Smith wrote to presiding officer Ken Macintosh suggesting that Parliament be closed to the public in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ms Smith argued that increasing pressures on cleaning staff could be eased if the debating chamber’s public gallery, shop and toilets were shut, in an attempt to keep the building open for MSPs as long as possible.