Sturgeon: Firing CMO may have been easier

NICOLA STURGEON yesterday admitted that quickly sacking her chief medical officer for twice visiting her second home “may have been easier” than having her resign a day later after an excruciating press conference.

The Scottish First Minister said she was “trying to make the best judgments” by attempting to keep Dr Catherine Calderwood in post, despite anger over her flouting her own guidance. But she said that the loss of her counsel was outweighed by the risk that people would stop heeding advice to stay home.

Pressed on whether she had dropped a “stone cold clanger” by failing to act immediately, Ms Sturgeon argued that the pandemic made it difficult to dismiss Dr Calderwood and she was not interested in the normal rules of “spin” and “news management”.

Speaking at her first press briefing since Dr Calderwood’s departure, she also refused to say whether the medic would receive a payoff. Dr Gregor Smith, Dr Calderwood’s former deputy, was named as her interim replacement.

Dr Calderwood’s shambolic departure, announced just before 10pm on

Sunday night, marked an about-turn after Ms Sturgeon argued at a joint press conference with Dr Calderwood that she should remain in post. Barely an hour later she scaled down the medic’s role in a last-ditch attempt to save her. The chief medical officer had been photographed on Saturday with her husband and three children near a coastal retreat in Earlsferry, Fife. Police Scotland issued her with a warning.

Asked earlier on ITV’S Good Morning Britain why she had not fired Dr Calderwood immediately for her “appalling hypocrisy”, Ms Sturgeon admitted: “It may have been easier for me to have done that.”