Nicola Sturgeon told off by Covid Inquiry for moaning about Brexit again

Nicola Sturgeon told ‘that is a witness box, not a soap box’

Nicola Sturgeon was left red-faced at the Covid Inquiry this lunchtime after trying and failing to use her platform to continue moaning about Brexit.

Shortly after launching into yet another rant about the UK’s decision to leave the bloc, inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith KC cut her off, rebuking her with a reminder she was sitting in a witness box, not standing on a soap box.

Having to divert some department resources away from pandemic preparedness towards planning for a ‘no deal’ Brexit has formed a small part of the inquiry so far, but had Remainers foaming at the mouth as proof leaving the EU hurt the UK.

Asked by Mr Keith whether pandemic preparedness was the ‘one area’ where resources should not have been drawn away from to plan for no-deal, Nicola Sturgeon responded: “I don’t disagree with that.”

“I think every aspect of Brexit has been false economy, if I can put it mildly…”

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She failed to get any further before being cut off by the senior lawyer.

He warned: “Ms Sturgeon, I’m so sorry, that is a witness box, not a soap box, we cannot allow the political debate of Brexit to be ventilated here”.

The ex-SNP leader accepted her telling off, responding: “Indeed”.

“With respect I think you’re asking me questions here that are very germane to the whole issue.

“So, yes, I think it was deeply regrettable resources had to be diverted from any other area of work – and, in particular, pandemic preparedness.”

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Ms Sturgeon took to the witness box, making a pledge “the evidence I shall give shall be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.

She began with a personal statement to offer her sympathies and condolences to all those who “suffered as a result of Covid-19”.

“The pandemic might be over but for very many people that suffering continues to this day and there is not a day that passes that I don’t think about that.”

Earlier this week Matt Hancock said no-deal Brexit preparations had actually prevented vital intensive care drugs from running out during the pandemic.

He said preparations for leaving the EU without a deal meant that when crucial medicines were “within hours of running out” during the pandemic, supply chain preparations from Brexit ended up being “extremely useful in saving lives”.

“The work done for a no-deal Brexit on supply chains was the difference between running out of medicines in the peak of the pandemic and not running out.

“We came extremely close within hours of running out of medicines for intensive care during the pandemic, it wasn’t widely reported at the time.

“I think the only reason we didn’t run out is because of [that] work… which they did during 2019 in preparation for a no-deal Brexit, but became extremely useful in saving lives during the pandemic.”

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