‘Rules apply to you,’ city leader told
POLITICIANS must ‘practice what we are preaching’, Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday after an SNP council leader was caught up in a social distancing row.
Susan Aitken, the leader of Glasgow City Council, had to apologise amid claims she appeared to break social distancing rules while drinking with friends. Pictures published by the Sunday Mail showed the politician drinking with three colleagues in a city bar.
Asked if she was disappointed that Miss Aitken had to answer questions over whether she had stuck to the rules, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘The rules apply to all of us, regardless of who we are.
‘We are all human. These are difficult rules, I know, to remember, and to apply, and comply with, on a daily basis. We are all fallible in that respect. But we mustn’t, those of us in public life, we mustn’t ever give the impression that the rules apply to other people and not to us. So I would say to everybody in a position of leadership and in elected office in particular, that we have a responsibility to lead by example, and just to make sure that we are doing what we are asking other people to do, which is to be very, very conscious of this.
‘We are all human but we all have a big responsibility to make sure that we do everything we can to stop the virus spreading. That applies to all of us. Applies to me. Applies to the leader of Glasgow City Council.
‘The public have a right to expect that we will practise what we are preaching.’