Nicola Sturgeon’s attacks on the SNP’s election campaign are wrong, the Health Secretary has said as she became the latest minister to rebuke the former leader.
In an apparent swipe at Ms Sturgeon, Angela Constance said John Swinney “was the best first minister yet”.
Ms Constance, who served under Ms Sturgeon, said she was not angry at the former SNP leader for claiming the SNP’s election campaign lacked “vision or big-picture thinking”.
Former first minister Ms Sturgeon commented on the recent Holyrood election campaign in a newly-published foreword to her memoir Frankly.
She wrote that the SNP “rightly put Scottish independence centrally as an objective, but didn’t always bring alive the opportunities it offers for people in a tangible sense”.
She said the election was a “triumph for my party”, but there are lessons in the result that it should heed.
Speaking in Cardonald in Glasgow, the Health Secretary said Ms Sturgeon was incorrect.
She told the Press Association: “With respect, no, she is not correct. I have been a minister for a number of years. I’ve had the great privilege of serving all SNP first ministers and what I will say about John Swinney is that we have the best First Minister yet.
“He won a historic fifth term for the SNP. He is a nationalist and a believer in independence to his core.
“And also during the election campaign, day in day out, the length and breadth of Scotland, he focused on delivering and public service reform, and in particular the cost of living crisis.”
Ms Constance said she wished Ms Sturgeon, who left Holyrood in May, “all the best in her new life”.
She added: “People say what they wish to say. I’m an active politician. I accept that people have the right to communicate whatever they wish to communicate.
“But that, you know, applies to me as well and, as I say, I’ve had the great privilege of serving under all SNP first ministers, and we have the best First Minister in John Swinney.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the former FM faced criticism from the Education Secretary.
Mairi McAllan told BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme: “I think that’s a nonsense.
“We have just been returned to government with an absolutely whopping endorsement of our manifesto.
“It was a historic election result for the SNP, the largest ever gap, if I remember correctly, between us and those who came into second place, so I was really proud to stand in that election alongside John Swinney on a positive future for our country, on always standing up for Scotland.”
