Joe FitzPatrick quit hours after Scottish Labour lodged a motion of no confidence in him
Scotland’s public health minister has resigned from the SNP government days after figures revealed the country’s drug-related death toll had risen to another grim annual record.
Joe FitzPatrick said he had “agreed” to quit after discussions with first minister Nicola Sturgeon on Friday and hours after Scottish Labour lodged a motion of no confidence in him. On Tuesday, the National Records of Scotland revealed there had been 1,264 drug-related deaths registered in Scotland in 2019, an increase of 6% from 1,187 in 2018 and a death rate more than 3.5 times that of the UK as a whole.
