Sturgeon silent over £200m fiasco

NICOLA Sturgeon rubbished talk of a new royal yacht last night, despite her own government failing to deliver on real ferry projects.

Miss Sturgeon called the tentative plans ‘a distraction’, but was not quizzed further on her own administration’s failure to deliver two lifeline ferries.

The SNP Government has seen costs to build the ferries rocket from an original £97million to nearly £200million after a contract row led to the Ferguson shipyard falling into administration and being nationalised.

The royal yacht is to be commissioned by the UK Government and named after Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

It would cost as much as £200million, with calls for the vessel to be built in the UK in a bid to boost jobs after the

pandemic. It would be a successor to HMY Britannia, which was decommissioned in 199 .

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said he believed the vessel would be paid for by private investment in a bid to boost employment.

He insisted public money should ‘absolutely not’ be used to fund the project.

However, during the BBC Election Debate the First Minister was not challenged on the

Scottish Government’s dismal attempt to build two vessels, which are still not seaworthy

Miss Sturgeon said: ‘The only reason Boris Johnson has been talking about this is to distract attention from the sleaze that is swirling around him and his government – everyone should see through it.

‘Frankly, it is one more reason why Boris Johnson should not be the guy making the decisions about the future of

Scotland.’ Labour leader Anas Sarwar described the move as a ‘cheap stunt’.

Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie described the idea as an ‘absurdity’, while Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: ‘I could think of probably 500 other things I would rather spend that money on.’

Mr Rennie added: ‘It is a ludicrous idea, it will never happen.’