Nicola Sturgeon said there was “no excuse” for violating Covid’s rules after he took off his face mask when he woke up.
The Prime Minister of Scotland was photographed standing without covering his face as he spoke to three members of the public as he attended an event at a bar and restaurant in Edinburgh last Friday.
The regulations stipulate that guests in places of hospitality must wear a face covering, unless they are seated, including when entering, leaving or moving, and any breach is punishable by a fixed penalty notice of GBP 60 .
Apologizing before the final session of the prime minister’s questions for 2020, Sturgeon said: “I took off my face mask while briefly attending a funeral service last week. I’m sure everyone will be seen in the media this morning with a picture of me without her. I want to be clear today that, under any circumstances, I was wrong. There are no excuses. These rules apply to me, just like everyone else, and the rules really matter. “
Sturgeon told the MSPs: “I hit very hard, possibly harder than my worst critic could ever have. But more importantly, I’ll make sure I don’t give up on guard again. “
The response to Sturgeon’s crime was deactivated and, in some cases, sympathetic, while the issue was not raised again by opposition leaders during the Holyrood session.
Ged Killen, former Labor MP for Margaret Ferrier’s Rutherglen constituency, posted on Twitter: “I doubt that many people followed the rules more carefully than Nicola Sturgeon. I am much less upset about this than I am that Margaret Ferrier remains a member of the SNP. Every day he is a deputy is an insult to the people he should represent. “
Last month, the Guardian reported that Ferrier voters were frustrated by their MP’s continued refusal to resign after traveling by train from London to Scotland following a positive Covid test result.
Stephen Reicher, a professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews, who advised the Scottish and British governments on compliance with the coronavirus guidelines, said he did not believe Sturgeon’s mistake would have an impact on public behavior.
“The literature on ‘scandals’ suggests that very often the problem is not the original act, but the subsequent reaction: [Dominic] Cummings justifying his actions, Kay Burley inventing stories. In this regard, Sturgeon immediately came clean and acknowledged the error. He didn’t try to diminish it. “
Earlier on Wednesday, Scottish National Clinical Director Jason Leitch told BBC Radio Scotland that the Sturgeon mask was disabled because it was leaving the venue and had been called back, but did not put it back.
He described her as “absolutely upset over this short period of concentration.”
Leitch said: “He’s leaving the funeral of a colleague of ours – a wonderful, wonderful person who did a lot of work during the pandemic. It was a terribly sad day for many of us in the government who knew him and his family well. The nature of all these instructions and this virus strengthens us again. “