'Fire, floods and plague': Borders Council Leader speaks out about 'biblical' two years

Scottish Borders Council leader Shona Haslam has spoken for the first time since announcing she is stepping down. The Conservative councillor for Tweeddale East was elected as head of the council in 2017. 

She is stepping away from the role to lead a new Christian think tank. She told our Political Editor Peter MacMahon that leading the council during the pandemic had been exhausting.

"You know what, it's been a tough shift. The last two years have literally been biblical, we've had fire floods and plague and it's just been exhausting.

"I remember you know the start of the pandemic myself and the Chief Executive would sit down and watch Nicola Sturgeon's lunchtime briefings and on a Tuesday she would announce that food parcels were going to be delivered by local authorities to everyone who's shielding the following Monday and it was like, how on earth are we going to do that? And we did, and we pulled out every single stop we had. The staff have just been absolutely incredible. They've done everything that we have asked for and more."

Speaking about the impact being in politics had had on her family, Ms Haslam said, "You do wonder why anybody would put their heads above the parapet and why would anybody stand for public office when you see that kind of abuse that you get for doing that. I think we need to take a good hard look at ourselves as the public in Scotland and say well what kind of politicians do we want. If we want the best people then we have to stop pulling them down and hitting them - particularly for women as well."