NICOLA Sturgeon has made a thinly-veiled attack on Jackson Carlaw’s leadership of the Scottish Tories in light of his slow response to the Dominic Cummings affair.

The First Minister told Mr Carlaw in front of his MSPs that leadership meant making tough calls, not “hiding away with your head down hoping that it all goes away”.

She said she hoped the Scottish Tory leader would reflect on that.

On Tuesday, Mr Carlaw appeared to be bounced by his own frontbench into calling for Mr Cummings to “consider his positon” for breaking the coronavirus lockdown in March and April.

It followed mutterings in his party that he was being “craven” towards Boris Johnson, who desperately wants to hold onto Mr Cummings as his chief adviser. 

After Moray MP Douglas Ross resigned as a junior Scotland Office minister, a series of senior Tory MSPs said Mr Cummings should quit, and only then did Mr Carlaw follow suit.

At FMQs, Mr Carlaw pressed the Scottish Government over its record on care home deaths from the coronavirus, calling it a “national scandal” and demanding a public inquiry.

Ending their final exchange on the subject, Ms Sturgeon said she had taken the best decisions she could based on the best available information at the time.

She then added: “All of these decisions have been tough. Some have been really tough.

“But I have not shied away from taking them.

“Nor will I ever shy away from being candid about mistakes or instances where, had I known then what I know now, I may have come to different conclusions.

“But that, Presiding Officer, is what leadership means.

“You have to make the tough calls when they fall to be made. 

“You can’t hide away with your head down hoping that it all goes away. 

“And I hope that Jackson Carlaw and others will reflect on that.”

Mr Johnson is due to face questions from MPs over the Cummings affair later.

His adviser drive 260-miles from London to Durham at the end of March to get childcare, despite parents being advised to stay at home in such circumstances.

He then took his wife and child on a 60-mile round trip from Durham to a beauty spot at Barnard Castle on April 12, claiming he made the drive to check if his eyesight was safe enough to drive to London. 

More than 40 Tory MPs have said he should resign or be sacked.

Mr Carlaw said he had become too much of a distraction from the fight against the virus.