COVID INQUIRY: STURGEON Destined for failure

VIRUS CLAIM DOOMED FROM START

- BY PAUL HUTCHEON Political Editor

NICOLA Sturgeon's claim that coronavirus could be eliminated was "destined to fail", the UK Covid Inquiry report said yesterday.

And her government failed to plan ahead for the deadly virus that led to more than 16,000 deaths in Scotland.

The former first minister also sidelined her Cabinet during the decision to shut schools in the early months of the pandemic, according to the report.

Baroness Hallett said Sturgeon’s use of a “Gold Command” top team reduced the transparency of the Scottish Government's decision-making.

The report examined the key decisions by the governments across the UK in handling Covid.

Sturgeon’s government said in March 2020 that schools would close to help stop its spread.

Critics say the move damaged children and set their education back years.

A recurring theme in the report is that Sturgeon's Cabinet was not properly consulted on key decisions.

On schools, Hallett said the “important decision” was taken by Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney - now the First Minister — outside of Cabinet.

She wrote: “Although the situation was rapidly deteriorating, the Cabinet should have been sufficiently agile and engaged to play its central role in decision-making and not be sidelined in this way”.