IAN Blackford has fired back at Dominic Cummings after he criticised the Scottish Government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Boris Johnson’s former top aide hit out at Nicola Sturgeon for “babbling on TV” after UK-wide Cobra meetings with the Prime Minister.

But the SNP’s Westminster leader says Holyrood’s approach during the coronavirus crisis has been far more effective than the “shambles” at Westminster.

Speaking on BBC Good Morning Scotland, Blackford acknowledged the Scottish Government has made “honest mistakes” but added: “I think the public in Scotland recognise the leadership the Scottish Government has given.”

WATCH: Dominic Cummings has a pop at Nicola Sturgeon over Covid briefings

He continued: “It’s interesting that Dominic Cummings was criticising the First Minister for giving information through public briefings post-Cobra meetings. That was actually in stark contrast to what we saw from Westminster – we’ve had briefings given to Sunday newspaper and article often behind pay walls.

“There’s a sharp difference in the way the Scottish Government has tried to give leadership though this crisis and that of course is reflected in public attitudes towards the different governments.

“It is the case that everyone, of course, will have made mistakes as we go through this pandemic. But there's a world of difference in the way that the Scottish Government has behaved over this crisis and the shambles that we're seeing from Westminster.”

Cummings made a series of explosive claims as he appeared in front of MPs yesterday.

As well as declaring Johnson unfit for office, the former senior Tory adviser hit out at Sturgeon. He complained that high-level meetings were undermined because officials were concerned about what the First Minister would say on TV afterwards.

He said: “The last Cobra meeting I can even remember was essentially a potemkin meeting because it was with the DA's [devolved administrations] and what happened was as soon as we had these meetings Nicola Sturgeon would just go straight out and announce what she wanted straight afterwards.

“So again you have these completely potemkin meetings without anyone actually digging into the reality and the detail because everybody thought as soon as the meetings finished everyone’s just going to pop up on TV and start babbling.”

Cummings also said that Matt Hancock should have been sacked a year ago after repeatedly lying to colleagues and the public.

He alleged that the Prime Minister wanted to be injected with Covid-19 live on TV to prove it wasn’t a serious illness, as well as confirming herd immunity was the Government’s initial strategy as it resisted calls for lockdown.

READ MORE: Cummings declares Johnson unfit to lead and says Hancock should have been fired

Responding to the comments, Blackford said: “I think it really did confirm … that this was a government that wasn't prepared for the crisis.”

He added: “It’s chilling to hear the evidence come out from Dominic Cummings about the absolute shortcomings and the repeated failures.

“We seem to be making some of the same mistakes, not least keeping the back door open from India.”

Asked about questions over Cummings’ credibility, the SNP Westminster chief said: “We need to pick through the truth of all of this, but I think there’s fairly clear and fairly damning evidence that Boris Johnson and his government were unprepared for the Covid crisis and have continued to make quite catastrophic failures that have led to an avoidable increase in the death rate over the course of the last year.

“Dominic Cummings is a man I don’t think should ever have been close to government. The whole Barnard Castle incident is absolutely unacceptable. But nonetheless he’s confirmed a lot of the things that we already knew were happening in government.”