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The BBC Breakfast host suggested that Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon may not have received the necessary scrutiny over her performance during the coronavirus pandemic due to her ongoing campaign for independence. Ms Burden challenged SNP Finance Minister Kate Forbes to explain how Ms Sturgeon managed to avoid a major backlash despite the high death rate among nursing homes since the start of the Covid outbreak. The BBC Breakfast host said: “Your lecture will look at the Scottish government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.”
“I wonder if perhaps Nicola Sturgeon has been a bit dazzled when you look at the statistics, when you look at the fact that Scotland has one of the highest deaths per million of any comparable country in Western Europe.
“Thirty times higher than in Norway when you look at the proportion of people who died from Covid in nursing homes.
Even away from the coronavirus, in fact, then Alex Salmon’s handling of the investigation and his refusal to produce legal documents despite repeated votes in the Scottish government requesting them.
“And yet she seems to be completely focused on independence issues without addressing any of that. Is that correct?”
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Ms Forbes rejected the claims and insisted that the Scottish people would also disagree with Ms Burden’s negative assessment.
The SNP minister said: “I reject a lot of that.
“And I think the people of Scotland would also refute that if you look at the current poll numbers.
“I think we are going to this conference in a position of strength, if you look at the support for Nicola Sturgeon, trust her handling of the coronavirus and trust the Scottish government.
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“But other than that, we have been sincere since the beginning of the pandemic, saying that mistakes would be made and that we would be honest and direct when they were made.
“And we would take all the steps we can to ensure that people are safe and that we are managing the multiple harms of the coronavirus.”
Ms Forbes also noted that Nicola Sturgeon has already signaled that she will accept an investigation into the Scottish government’s conduct during the pandemic once the crisis has subsided.
She added: “When we go into the details of the coronavirus, Nicola Sturgeon has said that there will be a public inquiry when the time is right on all aspects of managing the coronavirus, including nursing homes and other issues that she has identified.”
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While Ms Sturgeon has kept her full attention on containing the spread of the virus, she has also renewed her calls for a second independence referendum.
The Prime Minister has insisted that a landslide victory in next year’s Scottish elections would give the SNP a mandate to demand a new vote.
Speaking to the BBC earlier this week, Sturgeon suggested that the new referendum could be held “in the first part” of the new Scottish Parliament.
The SNP leader added: “I intend to say more about this before the elections in our manifesto, but we are still in a global pandemic of which I feel a little more hopeful to see the end than just a couple of months ago. . .
“There is still a lot of uncertainty ahead. I am a lifelong believer, an activist and an advocate for independence, but right now I am also the Prime Minister of Scotland.
“My responsibility is the health and well-being of the country and trying to steer it through a pandemic and I’m very focused on that.”
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