Nicola Sturgeon has said there are “no excuses” for her violation of the Covid rules after removing her face mask during a wake.
The Prime Minister of Scotland was photographed standing without covering her face speaking to three members of the audience last Friday while attending the event at a bar and restaurant in Edinburgh.
Regulations require customers in catering establishments to wear a face covering except when sitting, including when entering, going out or moving, and any violation is punishable by a fixed fine of £ 60.
Sturgeon apologized ahead of the final session of the Prime Minister’s questions for 2020, saying, “I took off my face mask when I attended a funeral service last week. I’m sure everyone in the media saw a photo of me without it this morning. I want to be clear today that regardless of the circumstances, I was wrong. There are no excuses. These rules apply to me, just like everyone else, and the rules really matter. “
Sturgeon told MSPs, “I kick myself really hard, possibly harder than my worst critic ever could. But more importantly, I will make sure not to drop my guard again. “
The response to Sturgeon’s offense has been muted and in some cases sympathetic, while the issue has not been raised again by opposition leaders during the Holyrood session.
Ged Killen, former Labor Member of Parliament for Margaret Ferrier’s Rutherglen constituency, tweeted: “I doubt whether many people followed the rules better than Nicola Sturgeon. I am much less upset about this than I am about Margaret Ferrier remaining a member of the SNP. Every day she is a Member of Parliament is an insult to the people she should represent. “
Last month, The Guardian reported that Ferrier’s 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 has advised the Scottish and UK governments on adherence to coronavirus guidelines, said he did not believe Sturgeon’s error would affect public behavior.
“The literature on ‘scandals’ suggests that it is often not the original act that is the problem, but the subsequent response: [Dominic] Cummings justifying his actions, Kay Burley made up stories. On this, Sturgeon immediately cleaned up and admitted the error. She hasn’t tried to diminish it. “
Earlier on Wednesday, Scotland’s national clinical director Jason Leitch told BBC Radio Scotland that Sturgeon’s mask was off as she left the room, and that she was subsequently called back but did not put it back on.
He described her as “absolutely mad at this little loss of concentration”.
Leitch said, “She left a funeral for a colleague of ours – a wonderful, wonderful person who did a tremendous amount of work during the pandemic. It was a very sad day for many of us in the government who knew him and his family well. It just confirms for all of us the nature of these instructions and this virus. “