Nicola Sturgeon grilled on Alex Salmond by Andrew Marr

Scotland’s First Minister has also faced pressured after her predecessor Alex Salmond accused Ms Sturgeon of “repeatedly” misleading parliament and breaking ministerial code. Ms Sturgeon has rejected the accusations made against her but referred herself for an independent investigation.

On Sunday evening, MSP for Eastwood and former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Jackson Carlaw, accused the SNP of being desperate.

In a tweet, Mr Carlaw said: “The desperation from the SNP is palpable. They know Sturgeon lied.

“They know they’ve overplayed their hand on Brexit. They know Swinney is all over the place on education.

“They know vaccine roll out is too slow. We’ve got them on the ropes. No let up from now till election.”

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It came after Scotland’s Deputy First Minister John Swinney claimed that independence is an “essential priority” for Scotland’s recovery from the coronavirus.

Mr Swinney’s remarks came after Sir Keir Starmer’s comments that there should not be another “divisive” vote on Scottish independence.

Sir Keir told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “I don’t think there should be another referendum, I don’t think a further divisive referendum is the way forward.

“But I do accept that the status quo isn’t working. I don’t accept the argument that the status quo isn’t working, the next thing you do is go to a referendum.

“I think there are other things you can do, other arguments that can be made in support of the United Kingdom.”

But Mr Swiney said an independence referendum “is an essential priority for the people of Scotland, because it gives us the opportunity to choose how we rebuild as a country from Covid.”

Speaking on Politics Scotland on Sunday he added: “It would give us an opportunity to decide on our constitutional future and to determine the nature of our economy and the way we deal with and support our citizens. It’s a critical response to Covid.”

Ms Sturgeon has also come under fire over Scotland’s delayed coronavirus vaccine rollout.

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In November, Scotland’s Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said that one million Scottish people would be vaccinated by the end of January and everyone over the age of 18 would be offered the jab by the end of Spring.

However, these targets have been delayed with Ms Sturgeon saying Scotland now aims to have access to 900,000 doses by the end of January which will not necessarily have been administered.

Last week, Ms Sturgeon said she hopes to accelerate Scotland’s vaccine rollout programme.

Speaking to BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland, Ms Sturgeon said the government did not yet have full certainty about supply schedules after this month.

She added that a “cautious prediction” would be that “we will have vaccinated the whole of the JCVI priority list by early May, which is everybody in Scotland above the age of 50 and people under 50 with underlying health conditions.”

Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson also took a swipe at the SNP over the COVID-19 vaccine.

He claimed there would not have been a single dose in Scotland if it were up to Ms Sturgeon’s party.

Mr Johnson is understood to have criticised the SNP during a virtual meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs.

In response to Mr Johnson’s comments, the First Minister hit back calling the prime minister “juvenile”.

During an interview on Good Morning Britain, Ms Sturgeon added that it was “time for grown-ups to be in charge”.

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