'This has been a dark period of America’s history' - Nicola Sturgeon reacts to the US Capitol riots
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has reacted to the US Capitol riots by saying Donald Trump's presidency has been "a dark period of America's history."
Speaking to Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway, Ms Sturgeon said: "What we witnessed last night is not that surprising. In some senses, Donald Trump’s presidency has been moving towards this moment almost from the moment it started, but that doesn’t make it any less shocking… thankfully there is only a matter of days of his presidency left… this has been a dark period of America’s history…"
"There is a level of decency that democracy depends on and Donald Trump has failed to live up to that, or even come close to living up to that… Last night was undoubtedly a new low, even for him," she added.
On reports that Trump is planning to go to Scotland to play golf, Ms Sturgeon added: “If I can be very blunt about this, Donald Trump coming to Scotland to play golf is not an essential purpose… I would ask him to abide by the restrictions that are in place right now to keep the population here as safe as possible from Covid.”
On the topic of the pandemic, Sturgeon said the consequences of hospitals being overrun would be “grim, not just for people with Covid… but if intensive care is so full with Covid patients, that obviously raises real concerns for [other conditions] as well.”
She also questioned whether the current restrictions are enough, saying: “There is a question in my mind about whether we need to go a bit further in restricting non-essential business activity to cut even further the reasons people have for being outside of their own home.”
On Boris Johnson’s comments that if it was left to the SNP, there wouldn’t be a vaccine, she responded: “I think that is a pretty juvenile comment at a time when I think everybody wants to see grown-ups in charge of this response to Covid.”
Referring to her target to have a million people vaccinated in Scotland by the end of January, she continued: “It is dependent on supply… we think we will have by the end of January, just over 900,000 doses of the vaccine, so it is slightly below that million but hopefully it will come a bit closer to that as the supplies become a bit firmer over the next days and weeks…
"I am not complacent about this, this is a massive logistical exercise, but it is so important that it is something that has the 100% focus of me and my government right now. We need to vaccinate people just as quickly as we get supplies coming through."