NICOLA Sturgeon has issued a tit-for-tat response after Downing Street tried to blame the Scottish Government for the cancellation of a virtual covid summit.
The four nations meeting was due to go ahead tomorrow but was cancelled today due to concerns from Ms Sturgeon and the Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford.
Two days after the Scottish Parliament elections, Boris Johnson wrote to Ms Sturgeon and Mr Drakeford inviting them to meet and discuss the pandemic.
READ MORE: No.10 blames Scottish Government for cancelled Covid summit
However yesterday the Welsh and Scottish leaders said they were unclear as to what the agenda would be, and said they would rather the session was "meaningful" rather than a "PR exercise".
Earlier today Downing Street blamed the Scottish Government for the event cancellation, with the Prime Minister's spokesman saying he was disappointed.
He said: "It is disappointing that the Scottish Government feel the need to delay this meeting so they have more time to prepare."
"The PM is keen to speak to the First Ministers about our recovery, we want to do that as soon as possible but we don’t have a date set’
"We want to work with them to find a new date to schedule this
Now Nicola Sturgeon's team has hit back, saying that the UK Government was not "remotely prepared" for the event, which is why it is not going ahead.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon in talks with Greens over 'groundbreaking' cooperation deal
Ms Sturgeon's spokesman said: "The summit would be going ahead tomorrow if the UK Government were remotely prepared for it.
"As we and the Welsh Government made clear in our letter to the Prime Minister, what they had suggested was simply a PR exercise without proper substance.
"We have asked for a detailed agenda to be prepared for a serious meeting, which is what this subject deserves."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel