THE BBC has been accused of “double standards” after it cut away from Nicola Sturgeon’s coronavirus briefing this afternoon, despite having shown Boris Johnson’s in full not 24 hours before.

The Scottish Government’s Covid briefing aired on today at 12.15pm on BBC One Scotland. The First Minister had been speaking for around 20 minutes when she was cut off.

The programme then interviewed Jillian Evans, the head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian, before turning to Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross and, finally, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

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Previously, full Scottish Government briefings have been aired on the BBC Scotland channel, giving viewers a choice between watching the national clinical director Jason Leitch, chief medical officer Gregor Smith, and the First Minister answer questions from the media in place of hearing from opposition politicians.

However, today there was no such alternative broadcast on BBC Scotland.

At 4.30pm yesterday, BBC One Scotland aired the full 30-minute press briefing about coronavirus restrictions in England given by the Prime Minister.

As part of a 90-minute special, Johnson’s briefing was broadcast in full before health correspondents and representatives from Labour and the LibDems were given airtime.

The National:

Writing to the BBC to complain about “double standards” in their treatment of the Scottish and English press briefings, National reader Michael Picken said: “This is absolutely appalling.

“The evening before, BBC One Scotland showed a press conference by Prime Minister Johnson in full about the situation in England … This is completely double standards by the BBC. I live in Scotland and want to know about what is happening here in detail.

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“The BBC Scotland channel sits empty for most of the day - why could that channel not be used to show the whole of the First Minister’s press conference?”

Picken told the BBC that he expected the same importance to be attached to both the First Minister and Prime Minister’s briefings.

He said it was disappointing BBC One Scotland had chosen to hear from opposition politicians who “have no responsibility for the Covid situation” rather than experts such as Leitch and Smith.

The BBC previously came under fire after it announced plans to shelve the daily broadcast of the Covid briefings, instead showing them only based on “editorial merit”.

It later U-turned after wide public outrage.

A BBC spokesperson said: “As Covid continues to affect daily life in Scotland our coverage will continue to meet the demand from audiences for public health information during a pandemic while maintaining due impartiality across our output.”