NICOLA STURGEON has been accused of ignoring a grieving family’s pleas for an investigation into a mental health unit linked to up to 30 avoidable deaths.

Gillian Murray said she had quit the SNP after her the death of her uncle David Ramsay was “swept under the carpet.”

At First Minister’s questions today, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard raised the case of Mr Ramsay, who killed himself in October 2016 after being turned away by Carseview psychiatric unit in Dundee.

Carseview has been in the spotlight since 2015, when a group of grieving mums launched the Lost Souls of Dundee campaign, saying that their sons had killed themselves after being failed by the unit.

Mr Leonard noted that Scotland's suicide rate is more than twice that for Britain as a whole. In Dundee, self-inflicted deaths have increased by a massive 61 per cent in just one year.

He accused the First Minister of remaining “silent on this crisis and silent on this demand for a public inquiry.”

Mr Leonard told her that Mr Ramsay's father David and niece Ms Murray had come to the Scottish Parliament “because this government has ignored them.”

He asked: “How many families need to suffer before you finally recognise that now is the time for change?”

Ms Sturgeon said her “deep condolences"”went out to Mr Ramsay’s family, adding that the government had been in contact with them.

“I don't think it is right or fair to say that the government has remained silent,” she said.

But Ms Murray later accused Ms Sturgeon of telling “complete lies,” adding: “I have not had a response to anything.”

She said her 50-year-old uncle had attempted suicide after a sudden psychotic episode, leading to him being referred to Carseview. But he was sent home after a nurse said the episode had been “nipped in the bud,” Ms Murray said.

Two days later, Mr Ramsay tried again. His GP said he should go into hospital, but after a brief assessment he was sent home, with a mental health nurse telling him to “pull himself together,” his niece said. Shortly afterwards, he killed himself.

Ms Sturgeon’s spokesman said it was not “correct” that the family had not been contacted by the government.

But emails seen by the Star showed that, in February, a letter from Ms Murray to Ms Sturgeon was instead forwarded by SNP headquarters to her local MSP.

Both Ms Murray and her uncle were SNP members. “David paid into a party and they won’t even help him when he’s dead,” she said.

“Obviously I've cancelled my membership now.”

The Star understands that about 30 families have sought legal advice over deaths linked to the Dundee unit.

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