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Scotland's chief medical officer gets police warning over lockdown breach Scotland's chief medical officer steps back from public briefings
(about 3 hours later)
Catherine Calderwood apologises after visiting second home despite issuing advice to ‘only go out when necessary’ Catherine Calderwood apologises after visiting second home despite issuing advice to stay in
Police have given Scotland’s chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, a formal warning about her conduct after she visited her second home in Fife in breach of her own advice to avoid travel. Scotland’s chief medical officer has been forced to step back from public briefings after a furious reaction to news she broke her own rules to twice visit her second home during the coronavirus outbreak.
Calderwood was forced to apologise after being pictured on Saturday with her family taking a walk with their dog through the East Neuk, a picturesque area of Fife on the Firth of Forth, about 45 miles from her main home in Edinburgh. But despite mounting calls for Catherine Calderwood to resign from her position, Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday insisted that she would continue to play a key role in guiding the Scottish government’s response to the crisis.
At the Scottish government’s daily coronavirus briefing on Sunday Calderwood admitted that she had also been to the property last weekend. The announcement that she would step back from her public role – including from an information campaign she had fronted – capped an excruciating day for Calderwood. Earlier it emerged that she had visited her seaside holiday home in Fife twice over the last 10 days, including with her children this weekend, despite repeatedly warning the public that non-essential journeys risked lives.
Scottish government adverts are being shown on television this weekend where Calderwood says: “To help save lives, stay at home.” With opposition parties and members of the public calling on Calderwood to quit, Police Scotland’s chief constable, Iain Livingstone, said his officers had given Calderwood a formal warning about her conduct after visiting her home on Sunday.
With Calderwood now under intense pressure to resign, Scotland’s chief constable, Iain Livingstone, said his officers had visited her at her main home in Edinburgh on Sunday morning and formally warned her about her breach of safety regulations. In an intervention designed to shore up public confidence in the lockdown, Livingstone used his force’s Twitter feed to chastise Calderwood.
“Earlier today local officers visited Dr Catherine Calderwood and spoke to her about her actions, reiterated crucial advice and issued a warning about her future conduct, all of which she accepted. “The legal instructions on not leaving your home without a reasonable excuse apply to everyone,” he said. “Individuals must not make personal exemptions bespoke to their own circumstances.”
“The legal instructions on not leaving your home without a reasonable excuse apply to everyone,” he said, on the Police Scotland Twitter feed. “Individuals must not make personal exemptions bespoke to their own circumstances. It is vital that everyone adheres to these requirements.” The first minister said during her daily media briefing on the crisis that she was extremely disappointed with Calderwood’s behaviour, but said she wanted her to stay in her post. “Whatever her reasons for doing so, she was wrong, and she knows that,” Sturgeon said, adding that Calderwood had given her an unreserved apology.
Nicola Sturgeon gave Calderwood her personal backing and insisted she had to stay at chief medical officer, to provide her with her expert advice during the crisis. The first minister said she did not want to her quit. “If I’m to do what I need to do, to steer this country through the crisis to the very best of my ability I need her to be able to focus on the job she is doing,” Sturgeon said. “A job that – notwithstanding her mistake on this – she is doing extremely well.”
Under intense questioning at the Holyrood briefing, she said: “Her advice and expertise has been invaluable and it continues to be so. If I’m to steer this country through this crisis to the best of my ability, I need her to advise me.” In a clear signal Sturgeon planned to defend her, Calderwood stood alongside the first minister during the briefing, being broadcast live online. Calderwood said she was “truly sorry” for breaching her own advice not to travel, and acknowledged NHS staff had attacked her conduct.
Calderwood said: “I don’t offer any justification for what I did. It was wrong and I have seen the anger that people have quite rightly on Twitter. “I have seen a lot of the comments from members of the public on Twitter today, people calling me a hypocrite, people telling me what hardships they have endured while following my guidance,” she said. “What I did was wrong, I’m very sorry. It will not happen again.”
I have heard from my own NHS colleagues and I have let them down and the general public down. I made a fundamental mistake and I can’t justify it. I can only apologise and I apologise unreservedly.” Facing repeated questions about Calderwood’s actions, Sturgeon was asked several times whether Calderwood had offered her resignation. Sturgeon refused to confirm or deny that she had, but hinted Calderwood had offered to step down and that her offer was rejected.
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman, Monica Lennon, said that Calderwood’s position was untenable. She said her “actions have undermined Scotland’s pandemic response and her own credibility. Unfortunately, it means she cannot and should not continue in her role.” She said: “The chief medical officer made clear to me she would do whatever she is required to do to in my judgment to be in the best interests of the country. It is my view that that would not be her resignation because that would deprive me and the government of her expertise.”
That call was echoed by the Liberal Democrats, with Willie Rennie, the Scottish party leader and a local MSP, saying it seemed impossible for Calderwood to remain in her post because she had clearly broken her own instructions. As the controversy intensified during the day on Sunday, a Scottish government advert featuring Calderwood’s warnings against all unjustified travel was still being broadcast, in which she said: “This is a vital update about coronavirus. To help save lives, stay at home. Anyone can spread coronavirus.
In a statement, Calderwood apologised and acknowledged that the trip had been an error of judgment, but refused to resign. She said she had a job to do advising ministers on tackling the virus and supporting the medical profession. “Only go out when absolutely necessary for food, medicine, work or exercise … Stay home. Protect Scotland’s NHS and save lives.”
“While there are reasons for what I did, they do not justify it and they were not legitimate reasons to be out of my home. While I and my family followed the guidance on social distancing at all times, I understand that I did not follow the advice I am giving to others, and I am truly sorry for that,” she said. Labour and the Liberal Democrats urged Calderwood to quit on Sunday after the Sun published photographs of Calderwood, her husband, three children and dog taking walks near their second home in Earlsferry, in the East Neuk of Fife, on Saturday. That included a visit to a nearby beach.
Calderwood issued a public information film last week where she urged people to avoid all unnecessary travel. In the Scottish government video, she said: “This is a vital update about coronavirus. To help save lives, stay at home. Anyone can spread coronavirus. Only go out when absolutely necessary for food, medicine, work or exercise... Stay home. Protect Scotland’s NHS and save lives.” Willie Rennie, the Scottish Lib Dem leader and a local MSP, said residents in the picturesque village were furious about an influx of second-home owners arriving there over the weekend. Backed by Scottish Labour, he said Calderwood’s actions would weaken public confidence in the lockdown.
Police and politicians include Matt Hancock, the UK health secretary, have warned people not to needlessly visit parks or recreation areas to sunbathe or have outings over the Easter period. “The main street was described as being like a motorway and many second homes are full up,” he said in a joint statement with Wendy Chamberlain, the local Lib Dem MP and a former police officer. “There is real concern that with a swollen population and a virus sweeping through, the local health services will just not cope.”
Rennie said residents in Earlsferry, the village where Calderwood has a second home, were irate that large numbers of visitors had defied the lockdown order by going to their holiday homes or turning up for walks. Sturgeon deflected questions about the candour of her government’s first statements defending the chief medical officer’s actions, and fielded questions that reporters had put to Calderwood.
Rennie and Wendy Chamberlain, the Lib Dem MSP for North East Fife and a former police officer, said tensions were running high in the area. “Local people are irate that holidaymakers and second home owners have ignored the warnings from the chief medical officer to stay at home. The main street was described as being like a motorway and many second homes are full up,” they said. On Saturday, the Scottish government said Calderwood had been working “seven days a week” and “she took the opportunity this weekend to check on a family home in Fife as she knows she will not be back again until the crisis is over”.
“There is real concern that with a swollen population and a virus sweeping through the local health services will just not cope.” That statement failed to explain why the whole family needed to go or stay overnight. During the briefing on Sunday, Calderwood admitted she and her husband had also gone to Earlsferry the previous weekend – a fact not disclosed by the government on Saturday.
The Scottish government said on Saturday that Calderwood had been checking the property was secure. “Since this start of this epidemic, the CMO has been working seven days a week preparing Scotland’s response,” a spokesman said.
“She took the opportunity this weekend to check on a family home in Fife as she knows she will not be back again until the crisis is over. She stayed overnight before returning to Edinburgh. In line with guidance she stayed within her own household group and observed social distancing with anyone she was in passing in the village.”