BBC Radio Scotland has responded to complaints against its presenter Kaye Adams after she described former first minister Nicola Sturgeon as ‘not a human being’

Loose Women star Kaye Adams has lashed out at former Scottish First Minster Nicola Sturgeon.

Kaye, 61, labelled the former SNP leader and first minister as “not a human being” during a chat about the UK Covid Inquiry on her BBC Radio Scotland show, Mornings with Kaye Adams. Mother-of-two Kaye hit out at the politician over her failure to keep WhatsApp messages dating back to the time of the pandemic -even though most of her communications have been submitted by her recipients.

Kaye’s comments led to the BBC suffering a backlash online, with senior SNP MP Pete Wishart describing them as “absolutely shocking”. He declared on X (formerly Twitter): “I hope @BBCScotland think about an apology, or at least some sort of correction, for this.”

Nicola Sturgeon was labelled by Kaye as ‘not a human being’ (
Image:
Getty Images)
Defending Sturgeon at the time on the show, meanwhile, The National’s Kelly Given explained: “Nicola Sturgeon has submitted evidence to this inquiry, she’s submitted her informal messaging, and I think we need to take that at face value, she’s done that. Why are we holding these people to account as if they’re not human beings? Nicola Sturgeon got a new phone or deleted her messages or whatever…”
Kaye then interjected with her controversial remark: “Because in this instance they’re not human beings, they’re politicians.” Kelly replied: “Politicians are human beings.”

The BBC has since taken the stance that it has no case to answer for, however, with regards to complaints. A spokesperson for the broadcaster explained: “This comment was made as part of a wider discussion on the Covid inquiry and in particular holding politicians to account for decisions made during this time. Taking the comment out of context in this way is not a fair reflection of the discussion throughout the morning.

“Of course, our presenters don’t believe politicians aren’t human, the point being made was that they also hold elected office, as was completely clear to anyone listening to the full programme, as opposed to a short clip of it.”

Kaye was rushed to A&E on Saturday after losing her hearing in one ear (
Image:
ITV)
Earlier this week Kaye revealed she had been rushed to A&E after suffering a “traumatic” health scare. Kaye said she was left “terrified” that something was seriously wrong after she suddenly lost all hearing in her right ear “minutes” before she went live on air for Friday’s instalment of Loose Women.
Describing her ordeal on Instagram, Kaye wrote: “I was absolutely terrified, I thought, ‘Oh my god, what has gone wrong?’ On Friday when I was doing Loose Women, minutes before we went in air, my right ear just went dead. I put my earpiece in, there was no sound I couldn’t hear a thing.”

After getting through the show without mentioning the problem she returned to her Glasgow home where she researched her symptoms. With no sign of improvement the next day, she was sent for an audiogram that left her mortified by its findings and cause of the problem – a huge lump of earwax. “I mean I am embarrassed to say this because, honestly, my head was going to some terrible terrible tumour, I am very melodramatic,” Kaye told her followers. “Paula pulled out the biggest bit of wax you have ever seen.”