An ally of Alex Salmond has questioned Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership during the pandemic and hit out at the “utter incompetence” on testing.
Kirk Torrance, who was a defence witness in Salmond’s sexual offences trial in March, also said the focus was “evidently elsewhere” during the first three months of 2020.
Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “At last even senior pro-independence supporters are waking up to the shambles that has been testing in Scotland. National clinical director Jason Leitch said we would test 1.2 million people - we are light years away from that total.”
The Scottish Government has been criticised for low levels of coronavirus testing compared to other countries and the decision in March to end widespread contact tracing.
Ministers, whose initial priority during lockdown has been to suppress the virus, are moving to a new “test, trace and isolate” phase next month.
However, criticism is growing of the Scottish Government’s decisions in the early days of the pandemic.
Torrance was the SNP’s new media strategist when Salmond was party leader and he also has strong business links with the former First Minister.
According to Companies House, Torrance owns 50% of the shares in security systems firm Mount Schiehallion Ltd, with the other half owned by Slainte Media, which is co-owned by Salmond.
On May 15th, responding to SNP MP Angus MacNeil’s criticism of Scotland’s record on testing, Torrance tweeted:
“Utter incompetence! Focus evidently elsewhere during critical period between January and March, when adequate preparations should have been underway. Tough questions needing asked!”
Fifteen minutes later, he wrote: “Where’s the leadership, @NicolaSturgeon? Times up; put the incompetents out to pasture.”
He also claimed it was time to bring back Harry Burns, who was Scotland’s chief medical officer when Salmond was leader.
Torrance added: “Get a grip of #TestTraceIsolate and let’s get #Scotland going again…”
The pro-independence supporter gave evidence to the Salmond trial after being called by the defence.
After Salmond was cleared of all charges, Torrance wrote: “I was proud to give evidence at the High Court in support of @AlexSalmond.
The Scottish Government declined to comment.
