SCOTS Tory leader Jackson Carlaw was accused of politicising the coronavirus outbreak after he claimed Nicola Sturgeon lacked the ambition to deal with the pandemic.
In one of the angriest frontbench exchanges in Holyrood since the beginning of the lockdown, the Tory chief said the First Minister and her Cabinet had failed to grasp the “depth of the economic crisis that we are about to go through”.
He welcomed “the limited relaxations that the First Minister announced” before adding: “Indeed, I welcomed every one of them a fortnight ago when they were announced elsewhere, to much derision from her.
“We need much more ambition from the Scottish Government. Children need it so they can get back to school and continue their education, and working parents need it so that they have a chance of staying in work.”
Sturgeon said lifting the restrictions that she had announced yesterday two weeks ago “would have been utterly reckless and it would have put lives at risk”.
“That is why increasing numbers of people across Scotland are glad that Jackson Carlaw is not standing in this position,” she said.
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She added: “We have to act carefully and we have to put the health of the country at the centre of everything that we do because if we ease restrictions too quickly the virus will run out of control again and we will be back to square one, imposing a lockdown and requiring businesses to close.
“That would be wrong and irresponsible and, if we were to do it, Jackson Carlaw would be the first person in the chamber to stand up and say that we had gone too quickly and had not discharged our responsibilities, because he blows with the wind – or, rather, he blows in whatever direction his colleagues at Westminster tell him.”
Carlaw then pointed to comments made by Andrew Wilson, the chair of the SNP’s Growth Commission, who this week said that the “UK is set to be the worst-performing economy in the developed world and Scotland’s probably going to be a bit worse because of the nature of our sectors and how the virus has behaved north and south of the border”.
He then attacked SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes for going on Twitter to criticise media coverage of Wilson’s comments.
He said: “Can someone tell Scotland’s finance minister that Trumpian tweets don’t make jobs? That getting the Twitter mob to blame the media don’t make jobs?
“Isn’t it the case that this SNP Government simply doesn’t understand or comprehend the depth of the economic crisis we’re about to go through?”
Sturgeon said she understood the health, economic and education crises full well.
She said: “We will continue to try to steer a steady, consistent and safe path for the country through this.
“I will continue to do that non-party politically as far as I can, but I do really regret the constant tendency of Jackson Carlaw to try to politicise all of these issues.
“Perhaps the most egregious example of that inconsistency, if I can put it that mildly, is this: Jackson Carlaw, of course, who lead the pack baying for the head of [former Chief Medical Officer] Cath Calderwood lost his tongue over Dominic Cummings. That is the hypocrisy that has no place when you’re dealing with a national crisis.”
Responding, Carlaw said: “Scotland needs imagination, ambition and an open mind. A front bench team that deals in angry tweets rather than commonsense solutions doesn’t augur well.”
The First Minister said Carlaw “should maybe deal with the Twitter trolls on his own benches before he gives anyone else lessons”. “I am going to get on with the hard graft of getting this country through coronavirus,” she said.
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