Sturgeon humiliated over top medic’s resignation

Nicola Sturgeon faced humiliation yesterday as she tried to distance herself from Scotland’s disgraced chief medical officer.

The Scottish first minister faced accusations she had lost public trust after failing to sack Dr catherine calderwood, who was caught making non-essential visits to her second home during lockdown.

Dr calderwood resigned late on Sunday evening following an excruciating press conference in which she was forced to apologise for ignoring her own advice to the public to stay at home.

Police handed Dr calderwood a warning after photos emerged of a trip she had taken with her family on Saturday to their house in Earlsferry, Fife – over an hour from their home in Edinburgh.

Mrs Sturgeon initially stood by her cMo despite allegations of hypocrisy – but the Scottish government later announced Dr calderwood, pictured, had resigned by ‘mutual agreement’.

in a further humiliation for the Scottish government, it has had to pull all radio and TV adverts fronted by Dr calderwood as part of its public information campaign. Miss Sturgeon said last night she did not have figures to hand about how much it would cost to replace the adverts.

at the Scottish government’s daily coronavirus briefing, the first minister announced Dr calderwood’s deputy, Dr Gregor Smith, will take over as interim cMo.

Miss Sturgeon was forced to defend her government’s response to queries about the cMo’s whereabouts at the weekend after it emerged Dr calderwood had made multiple trips – not one – as it had initially confirmed.

Miss Sturgeon said: ‘it is fair to say that it has been a difficult 24 hours for the government. But i am acutely aware that that is nothing compared to the difficulties faced by those who contract covid-19 or the health staff that we are calling on to treat them. The line that was issued on Saturday night reflected the information we had at the time... [Dr calderwood] later clarified that she had been there the weekend before.’

Miss Sturgeon said Dr calderwood ‘made a serious mistake’ and could not stay in her role without ‘damaging the government’s message’.