STURGEON'S COVID PLAN WAS 'DESTINED TO FAIL'

A SCATHING report has branded former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic as "inexplicable" while her government's response to the crisis has been condemned for its "inexcusable" failures.

- BY RICHARD ELIAS

The damning findings concluded that Holyrood was too reliant on UK ministers to take charge itself of the fight against the pandemic.

The former SNP leader was also heavily criticised for repeatedly over-riding her Cabinet colleagues when it came to final decision-making. Around 20,000 people in Scotland are believed to have died from Covid-19. In the report, released late yesterday afternoon, its chairman, Baroness Hallett, said the response from all four UK governments "repeatedly amounted to a case of 'too little, too late".

She added: "Had the many steps short of a mandatory lockdown been taken earlier in the pandemic, a mandatory UK-wide lockdown might not have become necessary or it might have been possible to reduce its length. Through their own acts and omissions, the four governments had made lockdown inevitable." Baroness Hallett continued that the failed strategies across the UK had "left lasting scars on society and the economy, brought ordinary childhood to a halt, delayed the diagnosis and treatment of other health issues." The first Covid case in Scotland was confirmed on March 2, 2020, with the first Covid-related death on March 17.

On March 22, the first lockdown was put in place across the UK with schools closed and a mandatory stay-at-home order. Baroness Hallett found that the Scottish Government had "no real strategy" as rumours about the virus began to emerge from China between January and March 2020.

Another major influencing factor in the poor response to Covid was the "lack of trust" between Scottish Government ministers in Edinburgh and their UK counterparts in London.

The relationship between Ms Sturgeon and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson was extremely strained. This, said Baroness Hallett, only added to the problems tackling the pandemic.