A political row has broken out over the BBC political briefings with Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives hitting out at the Covid-19 briefings.
Scottish Labour said the “increasingly party political” briefings were "in breach of the Charter of the BBC" while the Scottish Tories accused Ms Sturgeon of using the briefings to “promote SNP policy and stir up resentment against the UK Government”.
“It would be strange for the BBC to contemplate dropping a Scottish briefing during a pandemic about a pandemic whilst introducing a daily briefing about politics in general by No 10 as is being suggested. Seems the success of the First Minister has not gone unnoticed by No 10, but the chance of Johnson achieving the same level of success is zero!” Donnie MacLean, heraldscotland.com
READ MORE: Tories claim Sturgeon briefings are 'SNP party political broadcasts'
“Labour Party should actually be complaining about the cancellation of UK Covid-19 daily briefings. Which were halted by the Conservatives at short notice probably because invited scientific experts were increasingly at odds with UK government messaging. Johnson and his government are ducking scrutiny from journalists over the pandemic. Why are Labour happy with that?”George McDonald, heraldscotland.com
“Shocking and irresponsible for Scottish Labour and Tories to demand an end to Sturgeon's Covid briefings covered by BBC. They are surely aware of zero deaths in Scotland day after day to England's still often well over 100? Communication is central to public health” Kirsty Hughes, Twitter
“Yet it is Boris who intends holding daily political briefings on TV. The Speaker of the House of Commons is not at all happy about the pursuit of politics in this manner. Boris, on the other hand, is probably endangering broadcasting laws. He might have to give opposition parties equal broadcasting space.” Mary Williams, heraldscotland.com
“The question is "are the briefings becoming Party Political Broadcasts " and in my view they are. The F M is a politician to her core and any statement she makes is bound to be political. The fact that Scotland is reacting differently shows that Devolution is working in the way it was planned. This does not prove that Independence is the right thing for Scotland. That is a quite separate debate and needs to be discussed accordingly. We should be wary of voting to leave the UK because we don't like English Tories, especially Boris. A credible opposition in both the UK and Scotland would add a lot to the quality of such a debate” James Hamilton, heraldscotland.com
“The fact of the matter is the SNP have used this emergency as an excuse for early electioneering and have politicised the matter and it is also a good excuse to exercise to go Union bashing. Personally I don't know the full extent of the English organisation of the matter, but even if it was perfect you people would still disagree.” Donald Peterson, heraldscotland.com
“If you watch these briefings you will observe that the FM does everything she can to not politicise the briefings, she goes out of her way to avoid doing so. But, the people who do politicise them are the journalists who are asking the questions. that is where it comes from, and the FM does what she can to take that heat out of the issue.” William Russell, heraldscotland.com
READ MORE: BBC urged to drop Sturgeon's 'politicised' Covid briefings
“London's Labour Office in Scotland becoming increasingly hysterical as they accelerate down the political mineshaft to oblivion.” Jim Chistian, heraldscotland.com
“Ms Sturgeon is The First Minister of Scotland. If Labour or the Tory were in Government and one of theirs was the First Minister of Scotland what would they be saying and doing you have to wonder? Power and position have its advantages. Get over it folks.” Andrew McMillan, heraldscotland.com
“The unionist "opposition" have absolutely no shame. It is important that the country hears how the Scottish Government is leading the fight against the virus and helping to support the economy. Impotent tantrums from Labour in support of the Tories do no-one any good, especially Labour. Disgraceful, although not surprising.” Robert Sim, heraldscotland.com
“Nicola Sturgeon has gone out of her way to stick to Covid19 and refused the daily ambushes to go off-topic. Labour may well have committed political suicide with this.” Douglas Thomson, heraldscotland.com
“Opposition should be given the right of reply at these "non-political " daily briefings Sturgeon uses to criticise the UK government.” Allan Thompson, heraldscotland.com
“Stop showing Nicola Sturgeon being competent. It shows our Westminster government in a bad light.” Sharon Stewart, heraldscotland.com
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