NICOLA Sturgeon has criticised UK Government plans to “roll out the red carpet” for Donald Trump.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, Sturgeon said she was “appalled” at footage from the US showing children in tears after being ripped away from their parents at the border with Mexico.
Trump’s visit to the UK on July 13 will include a meeting with the Queen, and he is expected to travel to Scotland as part of the trip.
The SNP’s Ruth Maguire raised the issue at Holyrood, a day after Theresa May had failed to condemn Trump when pressed to by Ian Blackford.
Sturgeon said: “I don’t think it’s appropriate at this time for the red carpet to be rolled out. Meetings are perhaps one thing but red-carpet treatment is another.”
She added that “with the exception of Nigel Farage and his ilk”, the world will be disgusted by the footage.
“I’m glad that the president appeared to U-turn on that position yesterday when he signed an executive order, although I think we’ve all got to be careful not to just assume that the situation now is ok, because it appears to be that instead of children being detained without their parents, we will see children detained with their parents.”
Referring to reports of Hungary criminalising lawyers and activists helping asylum seekers and proposals in Italy to create a “registry” of Roma, she said the world has “a collective responsibility to deal with those seeking refuge and asylum”.
The First Minister also fielded questions on a cash boost for the NHS.
The UK Government have claimed public services in Scotland will receive funding worth £2 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24 as a result of the £20bn investment in England’s health services.
Sturgeon said she was wary of whether this would actually be a net benefit, citing a UK claim last year of £33m in Barnett consequentials which ended up being just £8.4m.
Tory MSP Miles Briggs argued that under the Conservatives health spending had grown twice as much as in Scotland, and asked if the First Minister would welcome the additional funding.
She replied: “I’m not sure if Miles Briggs is aware of this, but health spending in Scotland is £163 per person higher than it is in England. That’s 8% higher per head.
“If we were to match the levels of per head health spending in England we would have to take £880m out of the NHS budget.”
On education, the Scottish Government were accused of “rigging stats” over literacy and numeracy figures by Ruth Davidson.
A report published earlier this week showed 96.5% of school leavers in 2016/17 attained literacy at National Three standards, 94.4% at National Four and 80.8% at National Five. For numeracy this is 96.3%, 90.7% and 68.8% respectively.
Davidson said: “It used to be the case that we could measure literacy and numeracy standards fairly with accurate surveys but when it turned out the rates were going down the SNP cancelled them, and we now have a new system in place.
“And under that system a pupil can fail their National Four or their Higher English and Maths, but still be counted as having achieved the right standards in literacy and numeracy.”
Sturgeon hit back: “I think Ruth Davidson is perhaps deliberately mixing up different stages of education. She talks about highers and level four – these statistics are specifically about level five.
“Nobody is cancelling tests. We’ve taken a survey that looks at a handful of pupils and replaced that with data on every pupil across Scotland.”
Scottish Labour’s Richard Leonard called on the government to back a review of the Bield care home closures.
He shared a case study of 87-year-old Christina Wilson, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and died last week. Her granddaughter Laura Owens said her health had deteriorated after being re-housed.
The First Minister offered her “deep condolences” and said the Health Secretary could meet with Owens.
While the government had helped re-house residents. Sturgeon added: “These are situations that none of us want to see happen, but organisations that are independent of the Scottish Government on occasion will take decisions such as those we are talking about just now.”
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