NICOLA Sturgeon has stressed that elected politicians “have a responsibility to lead by example” after the leader of Glasgow City Council was at the centre of claims she had been caught not following social distancing rules.

SNP council leader Susan Aitken was seen at a Glasgow pub with three colleagues – leading to accusations she had breached Scottish Government guidelines stating that groups meeting in bars do not involve more than three different households.

The group was also accused of not remaining one metre apart, as per social distancing rules in hospitality settings.

READ MORE: Glasgow council leader Susan Aitken involved in social distancing row

An SNP spokesperson stressed that no rules had been broken as two of the people that took part in the meeting have reportedly formed an “extended household”, meaning they can be classed as just one household.

The First Minister was asked about the incident at her daily briefing and stressed that “to be blunt, the rules apply to all of us regardless of who we are”.

She added: “Those of us in public life, we mustn’t ever give the impression that the rules apply to other people and not to us.

“I would say to everybody in a position of leadership and in elected office in particular, that we have a responsibility to lead by example and just to make sure that we are doing what we are asking other people to do, which is be very, very conscious of this on a daily basis.”

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Ms Sturgeon said that “we all all human”, but warned that “we all have a big responsibility to make sure that we do everything that we can to stop the virus spreading”.

She added: “That applies to all of us – that applies to me, it applies to the leader of Glasgow City Council, it applies to every MSP and MP and councillor across the country.

“The public have a right to expect that we will practice what we are preaching and asking them to do.”