STURGEON GETS DOSE OF REALITY
First Minister is left squirming after attack on health and ‘plant’ claims
NICOLA Sturgeon was left squirming in her seat during the first live TV debate last night after being attacked by a nurse and a teacher over her party’s record on health and education.
The First Minister was left looking uneasy and struggling to answer after nurse Claire Austin claimed she was forced to resort to food banks because of her low pay.
Miss Sturgeon was then forced to admit she and her SNP ministers are ‘responsible’ for the country’s literacy and numeracy problems after a teacher accused her of ‘lowering standards’ in schools.
And further embarrassment came when a senior SNP candidate had to apologise for ‘spreading rumours’ that Miss Austin was the wife of a Tory councillor.
Last night’s BBC debate was the first of two live TV debates which see Scotland’s party leaders go head-to-head before next month’s General Election.
While the debate initially focused on the big topics of the election – Brexit and Scottish independence – audience members moved it onto issues which have dominated politics in Scotland recently.
Miss Austin, who works for NHS Lothian, attacked the First Minister over the lack of money in the health service – and pay rises for those working in the health service.
In a heated exchange, the nurse said she was forced to use food banks to feed her family as she hit out at a lack of money for the NHS in Scotland. She said: ‘There’s thousands and thousands of nurse positions unfilled and the reason for that is it’s such low pay. It’s just not a sustainable income, we can’t live on it.’
She said: ‘I would rather leave nursing, as would many of my colleagues, than have to strike. You have no idea how demoralising it is to work within the NHS.’
She made a direct plea to the First Minister, saying: ‘Don’t come on your announced visits, come in in the middle of any day to any ward, to any A&E department and see what we’re up against.’
The SNP leader then looked uncomfortable as she attempted to answer. She said: ‘We’ve had in the public sector, not just in the NHS, in the last few years a 1 per cent pay cap. The reason for that has been austerity policies, we’ve tried to protect jobs in the NHS and the wider public sector.’
Miss Sturgeon said that with rising inflation the pay freeze was ‘not sustainable moving forward’ and said the Scottish Government would negotiate with unions on public sector pay.
But Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale pointed out that Miss Sturgeon and her SNP colleagues had voted against lifting the pay rise freeze last week.
Later, Joanna Cherry, QC – the SNP candidate for Edinburgh South West and the party justice and home affairs spokesman, was forced to apologise after briefing journalists that Miss Austin was married to a Tory councillor.
Moments after the nurse put her points to Miss Sturgeon, social media was alight with claims that she was a ‘plant’ who had previously appeared on BBC Question Time.
BBC Scotland political correspondent Nick Eardley tweeted: ‘SNP briefing that nurse is a Tory councillor’s wife.’
An hour later, however, he said the SNP were ‘furiously backpedalling’ before later confirming the rumour was untrue.
On her own account, Miss Austin tweeted: ‘I’m not married... please people get the facts straight.’
Miss Cherry then sent a tweet directly to the nurse, saying: ‘Sorry I was wrong about Twitter rumours. Entirely right that your voice is heard.’
During the debate Miss Sturgeon also came under fire on education from two teachers in the audience, in the wake of a new survey revealing that less than half of Scotland’s 13 and 14-year-olds are performing well in writing.
The First Minister said she was ‘proud of the fact that we’ve got record exam passes in our schools’ – but one teacher said: ‘That is going to happen if you lower the standard of exams.’
Another teacher told the First Minister a fifth of children leave primary school without basic literacy and numeracy skills, saying: ‘Education is needing to be completely revamped. We need to get back to making sure our children leave primary school with the basic skills.’
There was also a heated exchange between Miss Sturgeon and her pro-Union opponents who urged the SNP leader to ditch her plans for another referendum.
Tory leader Ruth Davidson insisted: ‘The country said “No” and you won’t listen to them.’
Miss Dugdale said: ‘We spent two-and-a-half years debating and we said “No”. People want to move on.’
Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie hit out at the SNP’s neglect of issues other than independence, saying: ‘It took 44 days for Nicola Sturgeon to publish her Bill on another independence referendum. It took 15 months for them to write their mental health strategy.
‘For the SNP it’s always, always about independence.’
Miss Sturgeon responded by attacking the Conservative leader, saying: ‘Ruth Davidson is using independence as a smokescreen in this campaign because she knows that the Tory record and Tory policies are toxic.’
‘You have no idea how demoralising it is’