Sturgeon and Sarwar clash over city rats
GLASGOW was the focus of First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood yesterday with Nicola Sturgeon challenged over rats, the cleanliness of the streets, a potential bin strike, transport disruption, climate change protests and NHS staff being able to get to work during COP 26.
With just days until the COP 26 Summit both Douglas Ross, and Anas Sarwar took the opportunity to raise potential problems that could arise.
The First Minister and the Labour leader clashed over the potential of a bin strike.
Sarwar said he was meeting cleansing workers in Glasgow and asked Sturgeon if she would join him.
The Labour leader said Glasgow has been “let down by the SNP” raising fly-tipping and reports of more than one million rats in the city.
The heated exchange became more terse and Sturgeon accused Labour of talking Glasgow down for political gain.
She said Glasgow was not unique in the challenges it faces adding on the cleansing dispute I’ll be working hard to make sure Cosla is doing everything to reach agreement.
She said: “Glasgow is not unique here. Nor will I allow Glasgow to be talked down for political purposes in the way Anas Sarwar has been doing.”
After the exchange, Sarwar’s fellow Glasgow MSP, Pam Duncan Glancy, repeated the request for the First Minister to meet with
There are rats in every street
cleansing workers and said there were rats in her street.
To which a SNP backbench MSP could be heard responding “there are rats in every street”.
Ross, Scottish Conservative Leader, asked if the First Minister was “confident Glasgow City Council has done all they can to ensure people can get on with their daily lives”.
The First Minister said she was as confident as she could be and that the council had been working with the United Nations and others to put measures in place. She said: “To the people of Glasgow, I would say there will be disruption and inconvenience. I think the majority of people understand the importance of the COP summit for the future of the planet.”
Ross wanted a clampdown on disruptive protests and asked if the First Minister could “reassure people there will be a zero Tolerance approach” to disruption to people getting to their work and anything that prevented doctors and nurses getting to work.
Sturgeon said: “In a constitutional democracy, it is for the police to decide” how to respond to protests.