U.K. Prime Minister Warns of Quadruple Winter Crisis
ANDERSON: Britain apparently is facing a world of worry this winter, according to the prime minister there. He -- as he marks his -- what has been an eventful first year at 10 Downing Street. Boris Johnson is sounding the alarm over what he calls a quadruple crisis looming for the U.K. when the cold weather rolls around. And he has got the army preparing. Let's break it down for you: a second coronavirus spike, flu season, flooding and the end of the transition period out of the European Union.</s>ANDERSON: Well, Brussels has been doing its get tough dance with Britain. So plenty on the PM'S plate including a new concern up north. Fresh fears over the state of the union, driving Mr. Trump -- sorry, Mr. Johnson -- driving him to Scotland today. We have a lot to cover. CNN's Nic Robertson joining me from live from Edinburgh to do that. We know that the Scottish leader is keen on independence. What did she have to say on the trip?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN  INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: She welcomes Boris Johnson's visit, she said this in a tweet, because every time he comes up here that further shows the difference between her and him. And really, one of the things that's become apparent during how the government up here in Scotland and the United Kingdom government in London under Boris Johnson have handled coronavirus are really giving Nicola Sturgeon a political advantage. The polls are bearing this out, that her poll ratings have gone up because people are trusting her. She's delivered a clear message, because they understand she's putting health before the economy; whereas Boris Johnson's message has been more confusing. Here, for example, in Scotland, they have instituted having face masks in shops, making it mandatory a couple of weeks ago. England only moves into that tomorrow. That's just one of the differences. So you have this situation, where the head of the Scottish National Party is surging in the polls. The British leader is diving in the polls. And what that is done here, it drives up support for the first time in many generations, meaning there's now a majority for independence in Scotland. That's why the prime minister has come up here. What he has tried to do is give the message that the union is strong. This is how he pitched it today when he was up here.</s>BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: The union is a fantastically strong institution, it's helped our country through thick and thin. It's very, very valuable in terms of the support we have been able to give to everybody throughout all corners of the U.K. And we had a referendum on breaking up the union a few years ago, I think only six years ago. That is not -- that is not a generation by any computation. And I think what people really want to do is see our whole country coming back strongly together. And that's what we're going to do.</s>ROBERTSON: So here's a thing about the prime minister's visit to Scotland. The locations were kept secret until the last minute. More so than the sort of normal concern when a leader moves around. Not only that, the constituency that he has visited so far is a Liberal Democrat one. They have only four constituencies in the whole of Scotland. The SNP, the Scottish National Party, are 48 and the other place we're expecting him to visit is a conservative constituency. They only have only six constituencies in Scotland. So Boris Johnson isn't publicizes his message, isn't going out to meet people here and isn't even going into the areas where he really needs to double down on the message that the union is good for the country. This -- we're in an unprecedented time, I have to say, Becky. I cover Scotland a lot. And I track this move towards independence. And it's taken a significant shift right now. I have been shocked at what I have been hearing from people, that they would not support it before but, based on this government and Scotland's handling of the coronavirus, they would now support it.</s>ANDERSON: That's fascinating. All right. Well, one of the threats to the U.K., suggested by the prime minister himself, is leaving the E.U., of course. Despite the U.K. siding with the U.S. on China, that doesn't seem to be a transatlantic trade deal on the cards anytime soon. When you listen to Michel Barnier, who is negotiating for the trade deal on that side as well, we are hearing negative things. What's going on, Nic?</s>ROBERTSON: Well, I think one of the things that Boris Johnson's critics would say is that he's always been an optimist and always says let's rise to the challenge, let's be positive, let's be optimistic. But now we're getting to the crunch period. He just had secretary of state Pompeo visit him in London and there were some cold realities laid out there. Boris Johnson was hoping to get an interim trade deal because they had done what the United States wanted him to do in toughening the attitude to China, particularly over Huawei and 5G.</s>ROBERTSON: And the reality is that the European Union has been saying clearly, what you're coming to the table with doesn't meet with what we have previously agreed sort of in broad terms. So the messaging has been coming to the prime minister that, what you're asking for, both to do with the U.S., what you're doing with the European Union, is not currently on the table. The reality is the prime minister's optimism is not being matched by the reality. I think this is the political difficulty he will face. As he said today, the country has massive challenges ahead of it.</s>ANDERSON: Nic, politics can be quite a snippy game. The prime minister getting a bit of a taste of that earlier. Explain, if you will.</s>ROBERTSON: Certainly. Look, the -- what he's faced here in Scotland is, you know, keeping the location of where he was going to visit, you know, one could say, a secret. Certainly it wasn't publicized in advance, even this morning. We didn't know where he was going and even the details of when he was visiting places was closely held. Despite that, there were protesters out on the streets in the tiny island where, he went to the crab -- a crab processing plant there. Interestingly of course, crabs are one of the products that are shipped to the European Union. And I have spoken to the people -- some of the fishermen who are out getting the crustaceans from the seas around Scotland. And they have been hugely concerned about Brexit because it slows down getting their product to market and maybe even they'll lose that market.</s>ANDERSON: Nic Robertson is in Edinburgh, I appreciate it. Now Liverpool have been English Premier League champions for a month but yesterday it was a moment 30 years in the making. An entire generation longing to see the Reds lift a league trophy. We'll tell you why they are not slowing down anytime soon. That's coming up.