Findlay: SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was a 'charlatan, not a saint' during Covid

Nicola Sturgeon was ‘a charlatan not a saint’ during the pandemic, Russell Findlay has claimed. The blistering attack followed Ms Sturgeon challenging Mr Findlay’s claim that she was ‘hostile’ towards some in the media during her regular Covid briefings. Mr Findlay, a crime reporter before entering Holyrood in 2021, hit back: ‘It should never be forgotten that Nicola Sturgeon was responsible for sending Covid-positive patients into care homes, leaving Scottish businesses without the help they needed, and keeping our schools closed for far too long with punitive restrictions and stupid rules, including ill-fated proposals to chop the bottom off classroom doors. The Scots Tory leader said Nicola Sturgeon was ‘hostile’ towards some in the media during the pandemic briefings Russell Findlay also accused the former First Minister of sending 'Covid-positive patients into care homes' The West Scotland MSP went on: ‘From Alex Salmond through to Nicola Sturgeon and continuing, there has been this fairly unpleasant hostility towards journalism and journalists. I think they were particularly hostile.’ He said some of Ms Sturgeon’s Covid briefings, which raised her profile to new levels UK-wide, were ‘little more than political grandstanding half the time’.