Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland would have gone into lockdown sooner if she knew then what she knows now.

The First Minister said that mistakes were made that she will regret forever but said that decisions were taken on the basis of what was known about the virus at the time.

She was responding to Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour leader, who said that the Scottish Government was in “lockstep” with the UK Government on big decisions but Nicola Sturgeon was “better at spinning her failures”.

At First Ministers Questions in Holyrood he listed decisions taken on cancelling mass events, sending untested older people into care homes as being the same as the UK Government.

Glasgow Times:

He said : I gave three examples of decisions that were made in Scotland, on strategy, mass gatherings and care homes. I could have given more, such as a failure to have adequate PPE supplies, a failure to adequately ramp up testing, a failure to introduce strict testing and quarantine at our airports, and ineffective contact tracing.

“We cannot allow Scottish exceptionalism to stop us from learning critical lessons. It is always easier to focus on failures elsewhere.”

The First Minister told the Scottish Parliament she took responsibility for decisions the Scottish Government took.

Sturgeon said: “I lived through that period as the lead decision maker in the Scottish Government. I take responsibility for all the decisions and I have never tried to shy away from that.

“I will live with the consequences of those decisions for as long as I live, and those decisions will be subject to serious scrutiny. That is right and proper.

“We sought, all along, to do the right thing, based on the knowledge and the understanding that we had. In the light of developing knowledge, if we could turn the clock back, we would do some of these things differently.

“In addition, as I have said all along, we will have made straightforward mistakes, and I will forever regret any mistakes that we made.”

After the meeting Sarwar said: “The First Minister has always been better at spinning her failures than Boris Johnson.

During the exchange in Holyrood, Sturgeon also said “I do not know what point Anas Sarwar is seeking to prove.

Glasgow Times:

“If I could turn the clock back, would we go into lockdown earlier than we did? Yes, I think that we would. If I could turn the clock back, there are many things that I would love to have the opportunity to do differently.”