Princess Anne was left waiting for 40 minutes at an official event in a Scottish port after Humza Yousaf’s deputy Shona Robison came late, in a “disgraceful” and “completely disrespectful” conduct.
The King’s sister is said to have passed the time by chatting with other participants while the Prince Royal was attending the opening of the expanded Aberdeen Harbour.
Shona Robison claimed “urgent government business” for keeping the 350 guests waiting.
According to the Scottish government, the Deputy First Minister apologised to organisers for being late, but the event was not postponed.
Meanwhile two separate attendees said that speeches scheduled for 2.25pm did not start until 3.05pm, the Scottish Daily Mail reported.
According to the sources, the delay looked to be caused by Ms Robison’s late arrival. The move was dubbed “completely disrespectful” by many who turned to social media to criticise the Deputy First Minister.
Douglas Lumsden, the Scottish Conservative MSP for North East Scotland, wrote: “It was completely disrespectful that the Deputy First Minister could not get to the Royal opening of Aberdeen Harbour on time and to keep everyone waiting, including Princess Anne, is quite disgraceful.”
Meanwhile one X, formerly Twitter, user wrote: “Could the SNP stoop any lower?”
Another user called the incident “an embarrassment for Scotland”.
They wrote: “If we think Humza Yousaf is a dreadful First Minister, his deputy, Shona Robison, certainly didn’t shine when she stood in for him last week.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government stated: “The Deputy First Minister was unavoidably delayed due to urgent government business and apologised to the organisers. The speeches were not delayed and the organisers were notified in advance.”