Nicola Sturgeon’s mum has revealed she fears for her daughter as the coronavirus crisis grows.
Joan, 67, said she and the First Minister’s dad Robin are worried about the toll Scotland’s lockdown is taking on her.
The former local councillor, from Irvine, Ayrshire, is glued to the daily press briefings where the FM has the grim task of delivering the country’s daily death toll.
The grandmother, whose other daughter Gill is an NHS worker, said she was always looking for signs that Nicola is OK.
She said: “I’m very protective of Nicola and I just want to give her a hug. It’s how we all feel right now. Everybody’s in the same position.
“We worry about her. We worry about the burden that she carries, as any parent would.
“But we watch her briefings every day. Sometimes I’m looking for signs she is maybe not feeling right, just like any mum would.
“She is working very hard, as anybody can see, and it is a concern of ours.”
They haven’t been able to see each other for weeks but Joan said the SNP leader phones her every day to check in on how she is coping.
Sturgeon became emotional in an interview last week when she said she longs to hug her parents after the crisis is over.
Joan said: “Our experience is just very much mirrored
by every other parent in the country and beyond. We are normal people in an abnormal situation. They are
unprecedented times.
“We are really proud of Nicola and she phones me every night. She touches base with us.
“We don’t see a huge amount of her and obviously we don’t see anything of her right now.
“I have a younger daughter who works for the NHS and we worry about her too.
“They are both doing very important jobs that are very
different. We are proud of both our daughters.”
And Joan backed Gill, an NHS phlebotomist, after she launched a passionate defence of her sister’s response to the crisis on social media last week. Gill vented her frustration at critics who claimed her powerful sibling could be doing more to battle Covid-19.
She wrote on Facebook: “You know I am sick to the back teeth of hearing how the Scottish Government (actually my sister) could be doing more. How much more?
“On call 24/7. Briefings every day. Looking at how this affects ALL areas, not just health. Having to
still do day-to-day work.
“Having also to protect herself. Working from early until late then half asleep incase phone goes. Checking in on her elderly parents. Constituency work. Parliamentary business.
“And yet she texts me and says her job is nothing compared to a care worker.
“She is human too. She is doing everything for everyone else right now. Had enough of it. Her nearest and dearest know what she does and that’s all that matters.”
Joan, a former SNP councillor, said: “As a sister, you protect. Gill was annoyed at the negative comments
and I suppose you can understand people’s concerns and the comments they make to a degree.
“But when it gets personal and nasty at a time like this, it is hard to take. What else can Nicola do? None of us have a rehearsal for something like this.
“We accept, as a politician, Nicola will get comments made about her and that’s fine. You learn to live with it.
“But at a time like this when she is doing her, best I think Gill just felt it wasn’t very fair.
“She had a huge response to it and I would say mostly a positive response.”
In a radio interview last week, Sturgeon spoke of how she too was missing her loved ones during the lockdown period.
She said: “The very idea that I can’t just go and see my mum and dad right now… if I stop and allow myself to think about that… that will upset me in the way it would upset anybody.
“My sister is a frontline health worker, my sister-in-law is a frontline health worker and they say to me, ‘Oh you must be really stressed just now with all of this.’ And what I’m thinking is actually, ‘However tough my job is, it’s nothing compared to yours.’
“I worry about them. Like most people, I’m trying to keep in touch with my family over FaceTime and Skype, whereas previously we could go and see each other.”
Asked what the first thing is she will do when the lockdown is over, she said: “I’ll give my mum and dad a hug and hug my niece and wish my nephew a proper happy birthday.
“I’ll see my mother-in-law, who is particularly vulnerable. You’re getting me emotional now.”
Nicola has always been close to her mum and has said she still relies on her for help, advice and support.
Joan said that politics was never discussed around the kitchen table when her girls were growing up and it was only in later life that she too became involved in politics.
She was first elected as a councillor in Irvine in 2007 and again in 2012, when she became Provost of North Ayrshire. She stood down as a councillor at the 2017 local elections.
