SCOTLAND'S national clinical director has condemned critics for sending him online abuse and claiming he is a mouthpiece for the SNP.

Professor Jason Leitch said there was an “edge” on Twitter that was “nasty and worth avoiding”.

As reported by the Daily Record, Leitch, a non-political advisor, has gone from around 12,000 Twitter followers to around 100,000 as he's played a vital role in conveying the Scottish Government's messaging around coronavirus on TV and radio.

But it has also led to the 52-year-old facing online abuse after people became aware of coronavirus last year.

Leitch said: "They weren’t following me in order to wish me well. Many of them had lost their businesses, they were nightclub owners. And I was perceived to be the one who had shut their nightclub. The direct abuse of me is tough, tough on my family, tough on my mum and dad, tough on my wife, who is a teacher.

“The ones that get me are the low level, the ones who think I am doing it because I am bad, or they attack my motives."

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He went on: “And it’s kind of, ‘You’re a clown, you don’t know what you are talking about, you are just in the pocket of the SNP’. Or, the opposite of that sometimes, ‘You are just anti-SNP, you are a football fan’...they just chip away at you. They are the ones that I find harder to deal with.”

Leitch said his experience had changed his opinion of social media, adding: “Don’t look at Twitter replies,” he advised. “Use Twitter as a way of informing, not of having dialogue, because it doesn’t work for dialogue in the main.”

Leitch first hit the headlines in March last year when he clashed with Piers Morgan over the UK's approach to Covid-19.

He told Morgan: "I'm not sure where your masters in public health came from Piers but public health is not as straight forward."

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