NICOLA Sturgeon has credited her husband with saving one of the Queen’s Corgis from electrocution.
The First Minister told a special session of Holyrood that Peter Murrell, the chief executive of the SNP, had spotted a pup gnawing on a lamp switch at Balmoral.
She said that, to her "great alarm", her husband dashed across the drawing room to the dog in front of Her Majesty.
"Tragedy was averted," she said, although the Corgi got a "ticking off" from its owner.
Ms Sturgeon’s anecdote, included in a motion of condolence for the late Queen, brought a smile to the face of her son, King Charles, as he watched the proceedings.
The First Minister said she had first seen the Queen as a nine-year-old growing up in Ayrshire, when the monarch came to Irvine to open the Magnum leisure centre in 1979.
She recalled: “I was one of hundreds lining the streets with my mum. By luck, we ended up close to her car as it passed by. Nine year old me was convinced I’d caught her eye.
“That nine-year-old could not have imagined, 35 years later, being in the front passenger seat of another car, this time with the Queen at the wheel, driving through the Balmoral Estate.
“In recent days, other leaders have shared stories from Balmoral – of BBQs cooked by Prince Philip as The Queen laid the table. These are memories I treasure too. Special times in what was clearly their ‘happy place’.”
With Mr Murrell watching from the VIP gallery, Ms Sturgeon went on: “I did, however, experience one tense moment at Balmoral.
“My husband and I were with the Queen before dinner when the drawing room light started to flicker.
“To my great alarm - he was, after all, in the presence of Her Majesty - my husband suddenly leapt up and darted across the floor.
“Peter had spotted the cause of the flickering light.
“One of the Queen’s young Corgis, a beautiful pup called Sandy, was eating through a lamp switch.
“Thankfully, tragedy was averted and Sandy emerged unscathed - though not before a ticking off from his Mistress.”
Ms Sturgeon said a train journey on the new Borders railway with just the Queen and Prince Philip, on the day the Queen became the longest reigning monarch, had also been “one of the great privileges of my life”.
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