The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has claimed the SNP’s “reckless” police reforms were responsible for the M9 tragedy.
Willie Rennie said “expressing remorse” did not “absolve” Nicola Sturgeon from blame over the deaths of Lamara Bell and John Yuill last year.
He spoke out after the SNP leader said she felt “very deeply” over the “dreadful failure” that occurred when the couple’s crashed car lay by the M9 for three days – despite the accident being reported by a member of the public.
Political leaders are currently taking their message across the country as the campaign enters its final two weeks.
Speaking after a visit to Fife, Mr Rennie said: “I share Nicola Sturgeon’s remorse about the deaths of Lamara and John. I felt sick to my stomach when I was first told what happened.
“Expressing remorse does not absolve the leaders of our country from responsibility for what happens when they implement reckless reforms and fail to heed serious and well-founded warnings.”
Police control rooms in Aberdeen and Inverness will close later this year, despite local residents’ concerns about public safety.
After the mothballing, 999 and 101 calls for the north and north-east will be answered in one of three central belt call centres, before being transferred to Dundee and then officers on the ground.
Mr Rennie said: “The centralisation of the police imposed a suffocating target culture.
“Backfilling of specialist civilian roles by uniformed police officers and the rushed closure of control rooms created the circumstances that led to the tragedy of the M9 crash.
“I don’t say this with the benefit of hindsight as I warned the first
minister and parliament of these problems.
“I was approached by control room staff and police officers weeks before the crash that something serious was about to go wrong. I took that information to the top of government.”
Despite admitting the M9 tragedy was her lowest point of the last parliament, Ms Sturgeon said she was “proud” of her party’s policing policy.
She said: “We’re very proud of the work that we have done to keep extra police on the streets, to create a single police force which allows us to cut out a lot of unnecessary duplication and bureaucracy in the police service, and therefore spend more money on frontline policing.”
Ms Sturgeon – whose party is on course to secure a third term in government following the ballot on May 5 – also spoke at the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Dundee yesterday, saying her party would use “every power” to tackle inequality and poverty.
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour’s Kezia Dugdale said the next Scottish Government had a “moral duty to break from austerity”.
Speaking in Dumbarton, Ms Dugdale added: “Years of Tory cuts have driven too many Scots, and too many children, into poverty. We can now say enough is enough and deliver real change.
“That means building a fairer and more compassionate social security system for Scotland, but it also means stopping the cuts.”
