“Boris gets the blame and not Nicola Sturgeon”: Ian Murray’s defence of Boris Johnson

Scotland’s only Labour MP, Ian Murray, previously backed Boris Johnson via a Zoom call. He has suggested that Nicola Sturgeon’s approach to tackling the Coronavirus outbreak has been little more than competent - and that Boris unduly shoulders most of the blame. 

In a clip obtained by Guido Fawkes, the MP for Edinburgh South suggested that issues such as the lack of PPE and testing levels is “actually a lot worse [in Scotland] than what’s happening in England.” Whilst Sturgeon, speaking to Sky’s Sophie Ridge on the Sunday Show warned that the virus “could run out of control again”, she branded her response to COVID-19 as being “slow and steady”. Ostensibly, Sturgeon’s approach seems to err on the side of caution, in contradiction to Johnson’s plan which has been labelled as rushed by some scientific figures. So, what evidence exists to affirm Ian Murray’s stance?

Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, was quick to probe Boris Johnson about the epidemic in care homes at the start of May, suggesting that the government had been “too slow to protect people in care homes”. However, the care home epidemic, whilst tragic in England, has been far worse in Scotland. As a result, Nicola Sturgeon has arguably been acting negligibly. 

As of 1 May, 8,312 deaths in care homes had COVID-19 written on the death certificate, which represents a quarter of associated deaths at the time. Whilst on the other hand, this figure in Scotland is 1,438 which represents 45% of all deaths at the time. Something has clearly gone wrong in Scotland, and it must be emphasised. Keir Starmer was quick to put pressure on Boris Johnson, yet no one held Nicola Sturgeon to account, even though England and Scotland are taking their own route through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Scotland’s first minister also made a mistake by transferring 900 patients to Scottish care homes in order to free up beds for the NHS. Since the start of this pandemic, the main message and plan has been to ‘protect the NHS’, (a phrase we hear daily), and yes, Sturgeon has tried to do that, but at a devastating cost. It was a move that was likened to “crossing our fingers” and hoping for the best, as said by Tony Banks, founder of the Balhousie Care Group, owner of 26 care homes across Scotland. Whilst a similar outbreak has occurred in England’s care homes, it is much more severe in Scotland, wholly devastating, and could have been avoidable. When questioned by Sophie Ridge, Sturgeon stated that she was not aware that hospital patients with no coronavirus symptoms could infect care home residents. However, this is a somewhat flimsy excuse as evidence on the contrary was provided to the government as early as January by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).         

Ian Murray later went on to claim that the media praise Sturgeon “without knowing anything about it”, and boldly went on to single out Robert Peston and Kay Burley’s “absolutely deplorable” praise of Sturgeon’s handling of Coronavirus. 

Whilst this seems like a bold statement to make, it could be argued that there is an element of truth here. Dominic Cummings has been at the focal point of a media storm in the last couple of weeks and amidst that, very little attention has been given to the actual politics of this pandemic. To draw comparison, Nicola Sturgeon has been weakly accused by the media of the NIKE cover up, an event which main stream media would have slammed Boris Johnson for is said event happened in England. In comparison with the events surrounding Dominic Cummings, media attention has been incomparable. This is simply unjust as the NIKE cover up has led to hundreds of infections, and arguably, it is much more in the public interest to report such an event rather than the Cummings scandal. In addition, it could be said that if Boris Johnson was involved in such as cover up there would be media outrage. However, the media coverage was a mere drop in the ocean compared to the Cummings scandal, again highlighting the levels of blame attributed to the First Minister of Scotland and the Prime Minister. 

Further, Murray went on to suggest that Sturgeon had unfairly blamed Boris for her own failings. He mocked her approach as “look at me, I’m the stronger leader”. Again, it may not be unreasonable to suggest that Sturgeon is playing a political ‘point scoring’ game.

This accusation follows Sturgeon’s demand to the Scottish people to “not get distracted” by Boris Johnson. It has been clear from the start of this pandemic that Sturgeon and Johnson have decided to go their separate ways when it comes to ruling over Scotland and England, guiding the nations separately throughout this crisis. With lockdown being eased in England on June 1st, allowing schools to partially reopen, Sturgeon clearly doesn’t feel the same course of action is appropriate. However, such harsh remarks to the media seem to make an enemy out of Boris Johnson which is also reflected in favourability polls, with 4 out of 5 Scots approving of Sturgeon’s response to COVID-19. On the other hand, this poll may not be reliable as Sturgeon has threatened to reimpose lockdown restrictions as hundreds of people flouted the rules during a recent bank holiday weekend.  

Considering this, it is interesting to note the possibility of this determination on behalf of Sturgeon to appear as taking a different approach to dealing with this crisis could be an indication of the Scottish government gearing towards a second referendum on Scottish independence. In addition, Sturgeon has been hugely critical of care home deaths within in the UK, accusing the government of not accurately reporting deaths which seems convenient given the fact that, as detailed above, the situation in Scottish care homes is a great deal worse than of that in England. 

The Scottish government has been told that they need to “get their house in order” after May’s testing figures were released. On Sunday 31st May, a total of 2,729 test took place despite the fact that Scotland has the capacity for 15,000 a day. This is a valid point, reported in the Scottish Sun. With the launch of Track and Trace in the UK it could be questioned how this system will be successfully implemented within Scotland if the number of tests is so little and nowhere near reaching their daily potential. In addition, this figure for May 31st, is 42% lower than the previous Sunday and is also the lowest daily testing total since April 30th. Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw has accused the SNP of being too passive in their actions regarding testing, saying that “for weeks the SNP government has been told to carry out more tests to help Scotland beat this virus” and that “the SNP couldn’t just stand and wait for people to come to them”.

Boris unduly shoulders most of the blame is what Ian Murray said- and it is clear that he makes valid and correct points. A lot of Boris’ criticism involves being “too slow”, a phrase which is flung into every other sentence by Johnson’s critics, especially Keir Starmer. Sturgeon’s criticisms cut much deeper than this however. As Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government lavish in the praise received by media and nationalist alike for a supposed “better” handling of the virus, they have fallen down in key areas and continue to fail the Scottish people. All in all, considering the devastating death toll in care homes, the abysmal cover-up of events which led to hundreds of infections and the dire testing of procedure it is clear that Nicola Sturgeon is doing a poor job. This is not the action of a strong government and certainly not a strong leader. 

 Hayden Greengrass

"File:Official portrait of Ian Murray crop 1.jpg" by Chris McAndrew is licensed under CC BY 3.0