First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been criticised for not attending a service in London to remember soldiers killed during the war in Afghanistan.
The end of the 13-year conflict was marked by a ceremony of commemoration at St Paul's Cathedral yesterday where the Queen, Prime Minister David Cameron, military chiefs and veterans gathered in tribute to those involved in the campaign.
Almost 150,000 UK personnel were deployed to Afghanistan, and 453 British men and women died in the fight against the Taliban insurgency, including more than 30 Scots.
The Scottish Government was represented at the event by Keith Brown, a former Royal Marine and the Infrastructure, Investment and Cities Secretary who also has responsibility for veterans.
Ms Sturgeon was in Crieff, Perth and Kinross, yesterday where she gave a speech to the annual conference of local government body the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla).
Family members of Scottish soldiers killed in the conflict were joined by opposition parties in criticising the decision not to attend.
Janette Binnie, 47, whose son Sean Binnie, was killed in Helmand province in 2009, said she felt let down and called on Ms Sturgeon to apologise.
She told the Scottish Daily Mail: "I'm in a wheelchair and I made it down from Aberdeen.
"The First Minister owes the families a sincere apology for leaving us without official representation.
"It is totally unacceptable what she has done. It is shameful."
Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont said: "I think the people of Scotland would expect their First Minister to attend such an event.
"Many Scottish soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan, and it's right that this is commemorated.
"Nicola Sturgeon, like her predecessor, is happy enough to go to London to give lectures on the constitution. But I think it would have been appreciated if she had attended."
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "Scots would expect our First Minister to have attended this service to mark the contribution of the servicemen and women who gave their lives to keep us safe."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The First Minister was unfortunately unable to attend the service of commemoration for Afghanistan due to another diary commitment.
"She asked Keith Brown, who has responsibility for veterans and is himself a former Royal Marine, to represent the Scottish Government on her behalf, to pay tribute to all those who served and to those who lost their lives."
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones was also not present at the event.
A spokeswoman for the Welsh Government said: "The First Minister was committed to giving evidence to a committee at the National Assembly and was therefore unable to attend this important service.
"The Finance Minister represented the Welsh Government to remember and honour all British armed services personnel, including the 33 Welsh soldiers, killed in Afghanistan. The First Minister regularly attends events to support and honour our armed forces."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article