No helicopter for this year’s election campaign, says Nicola Sturgeon
By Andrew Picken
May 1, 2016, 12:01 amUpdated: May 1, 2016, 10:24 am
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in a helicopter on the General Election campaign trail (Danny Lawson / PA)
But for the final throes of the Holyrood campaign, Nicola Sturgeon has decided to keep her feet firmly on the ground.
The £35,000 rental cost is not the issue for the cash rich SNP, it is more Miss Sturgeon was never overly comfortable flying in the helicopter.
Sturgeon and the helicopter (Danny Lawson / PA)
She explained: “It’s not that I didn’t want do it last year it but you know that way when you’re nervous about something and I wasn’t overly comfortable up in the air in this tiny metal box.
“Especially when we were coming back from I think the Western Isles and there was a storm.
“So we’ve got our vans and that will do us fine.”
The burgundy Eurocopter A5365 Dauphin chopper used in last year’s campaign was emblazoned with pictures of the First Minister and was a campaign tactic favoured by her predecessor Alex Salmond.
The SNP now has a fleet of six vans which will ferry its top people around for the next few days.
