NICOLA Sturgeon has sacked Joe FitzPatrick as Public Health Minister, following fierce criticism over Scotland’s drug death crisis.

The SNP minister had been under pressure after the National Records of Scotland revealed that 1264 people had died drug-related deaths in

Scotland in 2019, up 6% on the previous year.

According to the NRS our drug-death rate was higher than those reported for all the EU countries and was approximately three and a half times that of the UK as a whole.

Scottish Labour and the LibDems were set to push for a vote of no confidence. They said the minister had already lost the support of frontline drug workers.

At 6pm on Friday night, FitzPatrick released a statement saying it was clear he had “become a distraction”.

He said: “I spoke with the First Minister today and agreed that I should leave government.

“It has been the privilege of my life to serve in the Scottish Government and, during that time, the most heart-breaking and difficult problems I have faced as Public Health Minister is the harms and deaths caused by drug use.

“As the minister responsible for this area I, ultimately, take my responsibility.

“It is clear that my presence as a minister will become a distraction, when we should be focused on achieving the change we need to save lives.

“There is nothing I can express that will ease the loss that so many families have felt due to a death from drugs use.

“I can only say how sorry I am for their loss and that hearing the experiences of the families and the recovery communities will never leave me.”

READ MORE: Douglas Ross claims Joe FitzPatrick's resignation over drug deaths 'changes nothing'

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon added: “I thank Joe for his work as a minister and the service he has given to Government over the last eight years, firstly as minister for parliamentary business and then as minister for public health.”

Angela Constance has been chosen as the Minister for Drug Policy until the Holyrood elections in May and the appointment will be put to Parliament for approval next week.

Constance said: “It is a privilege to be asked to work with the First Minister to address this challenge.

“I intend to get straight down to business, meeting with people who are at risk of dying from drugs, learning from the families of those we have lost and working with those in our communities and public health teams who are providing such valuable support.”

Monica Lennon, Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman, said it was right that FitzPatrick had resigned and called on ministers to give Scotland’s drugs deaths their full attention.

“Urgent funding is needed to boost access to treatment and residential rehab,” she said. “The Scottish Government must get behind safe consumption facilities, like the voluntary service being run in Glasgow.”

She added: “This must be a turning point. The SNP has failed badly and Joe Fitzpatrick doesn’t bear that responsibility alone. Our parliament can lead the world on progressive public health policies when we put our minds to it.”

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “The families of the 1264 people who lost their lives in the last year to drugs will take little comfort in his resignation.

“They are more interested in how we have reached this shameful position after more than 13 years of the SNP being in power, with Nicola Sturgeon in charge of health for much of that.”

Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said: “This was inevitable but it doesn’t ease the pressure on the Scottish Government to make up for the terrible failures over the last 13 years on drugs policy.” During Thursday’s First Minister’s Questions, Sturgeon moved to take charge of the Government’s response to the crisis, promising to attend the next meeting of the Scottish Government’s Drug Death Task Force.

She told MSPs: “I take that seriously. This is not comfortable, it shouldn’t be comfortable. I am not going to stand here and try to defend the indefensible,” she said.