Nicola Sturgeon has hit back at campaigners and opposition politicians after being accused of lying over the closure of a children’s hospital ward.
The first minister faced angry questions inside and outside the chamber as the row over the closure of the ward at Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley escalated.
Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, referred to a television debate in the run-up to the 2016 election when Ms Sturgeon was asked whether there were any plans to close the ward.
In the debate, Ms Sturgeon had said: “I will absolutely give a commitment that we will keep services as local as they need to be. There’s no proposal to close that particular ward.” It was revealed last week, however, that the ward is to close.
Speaking at first minister’s questions, Mr Rennie said: “Doctors may have advised her [Ms Sturgeon] to close the children’s ward at Paisley but they did not force her to lie in that election TV debate. Is she not ashamed of blaming the doctors for her broken promise?”
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The first minister replied that Mr Rennie was a “pathetic attention seeker” and that the proposal to close the ward was not before the government at the time of the television debate in May 2016. She said: “I am sorry if it upsets Willie Rennie but I am not prepared to apologise for listening to the doctors who know best about how to treat sick children in this country.
“There was at the time of that debate no proposal on the ward. There had been no clinical evidence presented. That changed in the months that followed.”
Both MSPs were rebuked by the presiding officer for their language and told to “treat each other with respect”.
The first minister also faced questions on the ward closure from Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader.
He said: “On May 1, 2016, the first minister told Gordon Clark on national television there were no proposals to close the children’s ward at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. Now less than two years later her government is closing the ward down.
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“Mr Clark is here today in the public gallery, so will the first minister take this opportunity to apologise to Mr Clark for misleading him?”
Ms Sturgeon said that immediately following the TV debate Labour leaders had claimed that she had “refused to give a guarantee” to protect the children’s ward and now appeared to have changed their position. She added: “As this matter moves forward the interests and health of children will be paramount at all times.”
Outside the chamber, Mr Clark, the campaigner who raised the issue in that debate, also called Ms Sturgeon a liar.
He said: “I only went through there [to the debate] to ask an honest question to give the people in Paisley and Renfrewshire some idea of what was going to happen to their local ward. That’s all it was about and the fact that she was prepared to lie for gain at the election, I think, is totally disgusting.”