Sturgeon comes under fire in first TV debate over independence 'distraction' and 'poisonous' Salmond war

Nicola Sturgeon has been repeatedly accused of jeopardising Scotland's recovery from coronavirus by focusing instead on another independence referendum and her "poisonous" war with Alex Salmond.

Several members of the virtual audience in the first TV debate of the Holyrood election campaign, broadcast on BBC One Scotland on Tuesday night, asked her why her government had recently tabled an independence Bill if she was truly focused on the pandemic.

The debate took place only hours after Ms Sturgeon escalated her war of words with Mr Salmond, her former mentor, and his new Alba Party by stating she would refuse to have any dealings with him unless he apologises to the women who accused him of harassment.

After being repeatedly challenged during the Question Time-style debate between the leaders of the five main parties, she insisted that a vote on separation could happen within the first half of the next five-year parliament without further damaging Scotland's economy.

She set out plans to separate from the UK and join the EU and denied this was a "distraction" from the task of recovering from the economic carnage caused by the pandemic.

Ms Sturgeon argued that the EU single market was seven times the size of the UK's without mentioning that more than three times as much Scottish trade goes to England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

But Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, said the country faced a choice between bouncing back from the pandemic or another separation vote, but it could not have both.

He said Ms Sturgeon had confirmed that she wanted a referendum by 2023 and appealed to viewers to stop her plans to win a Holyrood majority by voting for his party.

Both Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, and Willie Rennie, his Liberal Democrat counterpart, argued that Scotland needed to pull together to focus on recovery over the next parliament rather than return to past divisions.

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Mr Rennie warned that arguments between Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond, who has said he wants to use the Alba Party to win a "super-majority" for independence along with the SNP, risked dominating Scottish politics for years to come.

“We’ve seen the arguments over the past few weeks with Alex Salmond over these issues,” he said. “It’s going to be bitter, it’s going to be divisive, it will last for years, it will just be like Brexit.”

He added: “We need everybody in this room to be focused on [recovery from coronavirus]. But I’ve seen a window into the next five years in the past few weeks. Arguments over the constitution, strategy about independence, arguments between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond which have been poisonous and unpleasant.

“What we need to do is put all of that behind us and choose a different future.”

Mr Sarwar praised Ms Sturgeon's leadership during the pandemic but said her "blindspot" was her obsession with independence.

Outlining the Tory plans for economic recovery, Mr Ross said: "None of that's possible if we have to go through another divisive referendum.

"We can't have a recovery and a referendum, that's a simple choice that we're facing tonight. So I want to support jobs, I want to protect jobs I want to invest right up and down, Scotland, but that's all under threat, if we have another divisive referendum."

Ms Sturgeon said: "Recovery is not a neutral thing. What you recover to, what kind of country you're trying to rebuild depends on the decisions government takes and as long as so many of the decisions lie in the hands of Boris Johnson and governments at Westminster that often people in Scotland haven't voted for, then the danger is we take the wrong decisions and go in the wrong direction."

But Mr Rennie said: "We need to put the divisions, the arguments, exhausting arguments of the past behind us, and focus on the recovery if we can do that I think everybody in this room can make a contribution. So let's unite and get this recovery done together."

The First Minister was also accused of putting her push for a new independence referendum above addressing domestic issues like tackling child poverty.

Ms Sturgeon’s government published a draft bill that would allow a new vote on leaving the UK to take place as one of its final acts before the Scottish Parliament broke up for the election campaign.

The SNP leader this week set out plans to tackle child poverty, if she is reelected. However, her government’s own figures show that no progress has been made in reducing privation among young people over the past decade.

Ms Sturgeon defended her record by claiming the proportion of children living in poverty were “slightly lower than in other parts of the UK”.

But Mr Ross said: “You can’t go on to speak about poverty, or education, or rebuilding the country, when you didn’t put forward legislation to tackle poverty, for our economic recovery, or an Education Bill. All of that was put to the side so that the SNP could push forward with another referendum.”

Responding to Mr Sturgeon's claim that he was “factually wrong,” Mr Ross said: “It’s not factually wrong because the final piece of legislation the SNP laid before parliament was about independence, because that’s her only priority.”

Mr Sarwar said: “If she focused on fighting poverty as much as the constitution, imagine how different Scotland could be.”

On arguments in favour of the Union, Mr Ross claimed that the vaccine rollout was a tangible example of the UK working for voters.

He said: “Jenny [an audience member] has had both her Covid vaccinations, Jenny’s one of two-and-a-half million people in Scotland who have had the first jag. Over 30 million people across the whole of the United Kingdom have. That’s the Union working.

“The United Kingdom got the vaccines which are then delivered by our NHS staff, our British armed forces and our volunteers”.

Lorna Slater, the Greens co-convenor, backed a new referendum but refused to endorse Ms Sturgeon’s timetable. She said her manifesto would back a referendum within five years, rather than the two-and-a-half year timetable supported by Ms Sturgeon.

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