Sturgeon blames possible no-deal Brexit for distracting from pandemic plans
Nicola Sturgeon has blamed no-deal Brexit planning for diverting resources away from emergency planning at the Covid-19 public inquiry.
The former First Minister of Scotland said "every part of our work was impacted" by preparing for a potential no-deal exit from the EU.
At one stage, Ms Sturgeon went so far in her criticism of Brexit that lead counsel to the inquiry Hugo Keith KC was forced to remind her she was in "a witness box not a soap box".
Giving evidence for the first time to the inquiry, she said the consequences of a no-deal would "have been very, very severe" which gave them "no choice" but to divert resources towards preparing for it.
"It wasn't the case, to the best of my memory, that somebody came to me and said we need to divert resources from pandemic preparedness to this, but I would have known that there were many other aspects of emergency planning that had resources diverted from them," she said.
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"Brexit obviously was something that was happening completely against the will of the Scottish Government so we were not at all happy about what we were having to do...
Nicola Sturgeon was rebuked and reminded she was in "a witness box not a soap box" when she criticised Brexit (PA)"Every part of our work was impacted by this and it was a matter of deep and extreme regret and frustration for us at that the time."
Asked why resources were pulled from emergency planning when the risk of pandemic had been identified as "the greatest risk facing the nation" in the national risk register, the former SNP leader said her government had "no choice".
Mr Keith went on to pose the question: "So would you agree that the diversion of resources and money and time from that issue - that area of planning for the greatest risk which the country faced, the tier one influenza pandemic risk - was ultimately a false economy?
"Because although the consequences of a no-deal EU exit would have been extremely serious and had to be mitigated, the one area from which you really couldn't be said that resources should sensibly be drawn would be - the no less significant area of - pandemic preparedness."
Former Deputy First Minister of Scotland John Swinney said relationships between administrations has been "poor" post-BrexitMs Sturgeon responded: "I don't disagree with that. I think every aspect of Brexit has been a false economy if I can put it mildly, but that's another issue altogether."
Her words prompted a quick scolding from Mr Keith: "Ms Sturgeon, I'm so sorry. That is a witness box not a soap box, we cannot allow the political debates of Brexit to be ventilated here."
He pressed her on whether party politics got in the way of pandemic preparedness, as Jeremy Hunt admitted had been the case in his evidence to the inquiry.
"I think that can happen and I think it has happened. I also think it's possible to overstate the extent to which that happens," Ms Sturgeon said.
She explained she had very good working relationships with those who had different political perspectives to her across administrations when Swine Flu hit.
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Members of bereaved families are demanding answers from government figures (PA)“So I think if the attitudes and mindsets are correct particularly in the context of a health emergency. Political differences shouldn't get in the way, but of course, that is going to depend from time to time on the different personalities involved," she said.
"And forgive me, I'm not going to stray off the topic here, but inevitably that will be influenced - it shouldn't be - but it will be influenced by the wider political context at the time, and perhaps Brexit had an impact in terms of setting the overall tone for some of these intergovernmental relationships."
Former Deputy First Minister of Scotland John Swinney, who gave evidence later that afternoon, said relationships between administrations has been "poor" post-Brexit.
"Poor in the aftermath of Brexit, because obviously constituent parts of the United Kingdom - well, we were - in Scotland, we were not happy with Brexit at all," he added.
Likewise Gillian Russell, the Scottish government's director for safer communities from 2015 to 2020 and the current health workforce director, yesterday told the inquiry resilience work was put on pause in October 2018 to manage preparations for a no-deal exit from the EU.
Ms Russell told the inquiry: "A decision was taken that priority should be given to working through how we would mitigate the very significant risks that immediately crystallised on a no-deal Brexit.
"That took up a huge amount of strategic capacity across many parts of Scottish government, including the resilience co-ordination of a lot of that work."
Following Ms Sturgeon's evidence, Alan Inglis, 63, from Linlithgow, said: "My son Calum, as Aamer mentioned, was 34 years old. He tested positive for Covid on October 14, 2021 and within a very short period of that time, he became overtly breathless and four days before he died, he began coughing up blood.
“My son didn’t need pandemic guidelines, he didn’t need scientific advice, he needed someone to come to his aid to prevent his preventable death.
“Calum died on Nicola’s watch and Calum’s mum, sister and I are just seeking the truth. We’re fed up of excuses, skirting around questions. We’re just looking for accountability and most of all, that this doesn’t ever happen again because I wouldn’t like any other family to go through what we’ve gone through.”
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