Nicola Sturgeon said that her “only motivation” during the Covid-19 pandemic was to do the “best we could” to keep people as safe as possible.

Ms Sturgeon was asked by Jamie Dawson KC why former finance secretary Kate Forbes did not attend Gold command meetings until 2021.

Mr Dawson showed notes from Liz Lloyd, Ms Sturgeon's Chief of Staff, from one Gold Meeting where finances had been discussed yet the SNP's Minister for Finance was not present.

The former first minister said that her office had been copied into emails about meetings and that Ms Forbes would have been able to attend had she wanted to. Mr Dawson said: “She wasn’t one of the right people to have at the table?”

Ms Sturgeon had previously argued that Ms Forbes wouldn't have been present at Gold Command meetings as financial issues may not have been discussed.

Ms Sturgeon said: “All I was interested in was having around the able the people that we needed to inform the decisions that we were taking.”

She insisted Ms Forbes was not excluded from any discussions she should have been party to and that she was an extremely valued member of cabinet as well as “competent and professional”.

Ms Sturgeon added: “I did not operate on any issue that sought to exclude people from decision making. I tried to lead from the front, I tried to shoulder my fair share of the decision making, sometimes deliberately more than my fair share, given the severity and the difficulty of decisions that were being made. I also had a responsibility to see the whole picture.”


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