Sturgeon fails to clear up Yousaf’s misleading parliament row

7 Jul 2020

The Scottish Conservatives have urged the justice secretary to “front up” over accusations he misled parliament.

Nicola Sturgeon failed to provide convincing answers on why Humza Yousaf claimed police had told him compliance with quarantining measures was “very high”.

It’s since emerged that Police Scotland didn’t have any information relating to whether or not incoming passengers were sticking with quarantine rules or not.

In fact, the checking process which was meant to be underway at the beginning of June only started today.

When challenged at her daily briefing, the First Minister said her justice secretary would correct the record, but failed to explain why he said he’d received such positive messages from a police force which had no information.

Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said:

“It’s increasingly clear that Humza Yousaf misled the Scottish Parliament, and he now has to front up and explain why.

“He can either do that at the First Minister’s daily briefing or to Holyrood itself – but either way he needs to account for these claims.

“Mr Yousaf very clearly not only reeled off specific statistics in relation to quarantine checks, but said police had told him the compliance rate was very good.

“But now we know the compliance rate couldn’t possibly have been good, as no checks were taking place on this.

“And even if they had been, Police Scotland didn’t hold any information on the matter.

“This is another embarrassing gaffe by Nicola Sturgeon’s increasingly exposed and ill-equipped supporting cast – Humza Yousaf has clearly taken some liberties with the police and now needs to come clean as to why.”