BBC's Question Time programme will be broadcast from Glasgow tonight just over 24 hours after Nicola Sturgeon's dramatic appearance at the UK Covid Inquiry.
Former finance secretary and defeated SNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes will appear on the show along with Scottish Greens co-leader and government minister Patrick Harvie.
Ian Murray, the Edinburgh South Labour MP and shadow Scottish secretary, and Scottish Office minister Lord Malcolm Offord will also sit on the panel.
READ MORE: Five exchanges from Nicola Sturgeon’s UK Covid inquiry appearance
Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator, will be a commentator on the panel.
Filming for the show is taking place in Glasgow this afternoon with programme broadcast at 8pm on BBC One.
Ms Forbes is to be questioned about the Scottish Government's handling of the pandemic as she was finance secretary at the height of the crisis.
She gave evidence to the Covid inquiry on Tuesday and was critical of aspect of Ms Sturgeon' government during the period including its failure to hand over key documents relating to decisions taken.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon stretched credulity - and her oath - at Covid Inquiry
During her appearance she also revealed she was not invited to attend meetings of the so-called "Gold Command" of senior SNP ministers and civil servants set up to respond to the crisis.
The group would hold discussions over lockdown restrictions before regular Scottish Government Cabinet meetings took place in 2020 and 2021.
But Ms Forbes revealed she was not invited to attend - despite holding the important finance brief.
Minutes from Cabinet meetings at the time have been provided to the inquiry, but no briefings from the gold command have been handed over.
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon appearing before the UK Covid Inquiry in Edinburgh yesterday. Photo PA.
Speaking on Tuesday, the SNP MSP said she was "surprised" at the omission.
Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry, said minutes of meetings of the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) and Gold Command were not kept.
Ms Forbes said it was the "first of me hearing it".
During seven hours of giving evidence to the inquiry yesterday, Ms Sturgeon became tearful several times.
She denied accusations of secrecy, closing out senior colleagues from decision-making and using the pandemic to advance her and her party's goal of independence.
She was also asked about a Cabinet meeting in December 2021 when Humza Yousaf, the current first minister who was health secretary at the time, described taking "a hell of a bullet".
Ms Sturgeon explained the row with Mr Yousaf by claiming she was standing up for Ms Forbes.
Mr Yousaf provoked anger from Ms Sturgeon at the meeting when he said he had found £100 million from his health budget which could help pay to compensate businesses for additional restrictions.
Mr Yousaf described taking "a hell of a bullet" at the meeting, while Jason Leitch, the national clinical director, privately described Ms Sturgeon's behaviour as "absolutely ridiculous".
However, Ms Sturgeon told the inquiry yesterday she had been angered by Mr Yousaf springing the offer of an extra £100 million on colleagues, after Ms Forbes "diligently" attempted to find more cash but came up with nothing.
"I was not particularly happy about it," she admitted. "A couple of weeks before that, Mr Yousaf had said he may be able to find some money, and my response was 'speak to Kate'.
It appeared he hadn't done so. "It was more on behalf of Ms Forbes, as I felt it did a disservice to her and the very professional job she had done."
Ms Sturgeon denied that the exchange was indicative of a culture in which she did not "take kindly" to ministers making unsolicited suggestions or challenging her at Cabinet meetings.
While much of tonight's programme is likely to focus on events taking place around the Covid inquiry, it is likely questions will also be directed about the Conservative Government to Lord Offord while Mr Murray may also be grilled on Mr Starmer's performance at Labour leader and his views on Israel and Gaza.
Mr Harvie too will no doubt be quizzed on the Scottish Government's record including the budget and the council tax freeze.
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