Nicola Sturgeon’s absence from coronavirus Cobra meetings was “the norm”, the Scottish Health Secretary has said. Chairing a press briefing at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh this afternoon, Jeane Freeman MSP responded to reports, made by our sister title The Sunday Mail, that the First Minister had missed six meetings between January and March.
Freeman responded to a question from a journalist who asked whether it was “jaw dropping negligence and complacency” for Sturgeon to have skipped the meetings.
The question was in reference to the same criticism which was levelled against Prime Minister Boris Johnson for missing five meetings by the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford.