A man whose son died alone during the pandemic has blasted Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney for "skirting around" questions at the UK Covid Inquiry.
Alan Inglis, 53, from Linlithgow, said he felt "let down" and "would have preferred a lot more clear, yes-no answers" from the former first minister and former deputy first minister.
Alan's 34-year-old son Calum died at HMP Addiewell in West Lothian just 12 days after testing positive for Covid in 2021.
Lawyer Aamer Anwar, who represents the Scottish Covid Bereaved, said Sturgeon and Swinney had given "empty words of sympathy" and accused those who have given evidence so far of "denial, arrogance and blaming everyone else but themselves."
The two former SNP ministers appeared at the UK Covid Inquiry in London on Thursday to answer questions about the Scottish Government's preparations for a pandemic before 2020.
Sturgeon said that preparing for a no-deal Brexit harmed Scotland's readiness for Covid. She also admitted that the Scottish Government had no plan for a non-flu pandemic.
On top of this, she was reprimanded by the inquiry's lawyer for calling Brexit a "false economy".
The MSP for Glasgow Southside answered questions from UK Covid Inquiry KC Hugo Keith and Anwar.
Inglis criticised Sturgeon outside the building in central London after the former First Minister had finished answering questions.
He said: "There was an awful lot of information given out today and I felt a lot of the answers were skirted around.
"I would have preferred clearer, yes-no answers."
He added: "I have very mixed feelings about it. [I feel] let down."
Standing beside Inglis, Anwar said: “For many of the Covid bereaved the evidence of multiple politicians and senior civil servant has exposed a culture of impunity, denial, arrogance and blaming everyone else but themselves.
"Over 227,000 people lost their lives in the UK to Covid and by March 2022 a total of 13,429 lost their lives to Covid in Scotland. The dead cannot speak for themselves, but their families deserve the truth."
He also said: "the families want to know whether the Scottish Government blames Westminster or if they were in agreement?
"Did they fail to follow the science? or did they march a few steps behind Boris Johnson into his carousel of chaos?"
He added: "The families watched Miss Sturgeon and Mr Swinney give evidence but they want more than empty words of sympathy, they hope that Ministers and Civil Servants to finally admit their mistakes and work together to prepare us for the next, inevitable pandemic the families simply want truth and accountability and today is just the start.”
Sturgeon told the inquiry that it was "deeply regrettable" that the Scottish Government had to focus on preparing for a no deal Brexit rather than planning for a pandemic, although she argued there was "little alternative".
She said: "I was very aware of the necessity to divert resources from other priorities to plan for and look at the potential for a no deal Brexit.... we were not at all happy about what we were having to do.
"But to put it bluntly, we had no choice because had a no deal Brexit happened and there were periods over 2019 where that was a distinct possibility.
"The consequences of that would have been very, very severe... So we had no alternative."
She added: "I deeply regret any implications that had for our emergency planning in other areas."
Keith then asked her if planning for a no deal Brexit instead of "the greatest risk with the country faced, the tier one influenza pandemic" was a "false economy".
Sturgeon replied: “I don't disagree with that. I think every aspect of Brexit has been a false economy.”
Keith then told her off. He said: "Miss Sturgeon, I'm so sorry. That is a witness box, not a soap box.
"We cannot allow any of the political debate of Brexit."
Sturgeon also admitted that the Scottish Government had no plan in place for a non-flu pandemic. But she claimed there was “thinking” about other potential kinds of pandemic.
When asked if it was correct that there was no plan for a non-influenza pandemic, she said: "That is absolutely the case.
"That is not to say that there was no thinking within governments around non influenza diseases, high consequence infectious diseases."
She added: "I think this is the significant gap, is there was no set plan, and as I say that’s not the same as saying there was no thinking, into how we dealt with a pandemic that has the features and characteristics of flu in terms of the transmissibility but also the severity…
“The questions in my mind, literally every day, are not so much did we lack a plan but did we lack capabilities for dealing with a pandemic of the nature of Covid-19. And obviously I’m talking about there about contact tracing, testing, infrastructure in particular.”
She also said that she felt there was "a real danger in putting an overemphasis on plans" which "sit on the shelf".
She said: "I think there's a real danger in putting an overemphasis on plans.
"There is often a tendency in government to say 'well we have a plan, it sits on the shelf and so we've done the preparation.'
"It's what lies underneath that [which is important]."
Sturgeon is due to appear in front of the UK Covid Inquiry for its next module, when it moves on to government responses to the pandemic.
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