Liz Truss has been accused of tarnishing the unionist case against Scottish independence after calling Nicola Sturgeon an “attention seeker” who ought to be ignored.
John Swinney, the deputy first minister and Sturgeon’s closest political ally, said Scottish voters would be “absolutely horrified” by Truss’s “obnoxious” remarks, made during a Conservative leadership hustings in Exeter on Monday evening.
“Unionist campaigners suggest that Scotland should be at the heart of the United Kingdom. How Scotland can be expected to be at the heart of the United Kingdom when the democratically elected leader of our country is, in the view of the person most likely to be the next prime minister of the UK, somebody that should be ignored is completely and utterly unacceptable,” he told BBC Scotland.
“So, I think Liz Truss has with one silly intemperate intervention fundamentally undermined the argument that she tries to put forward that Scotland somehow can be fairly and well treated at the heart of the United Kingdom.” » | Severin Carrell, Scotland editor | Tuesday, August 2, 2022
If Nicola Sturgeon is an “attention seeker”, what are you, Ms. Truss? Not only are you an attention seeker, but you are also a turncoat. You were raised in a Labour-voting household, became a staunch Liberal Democrat, pro-EU, and a Remainer to your very core. Then, when you saw that it might be to your advantage to join the Conservatives, you turned coat yet again and became a staunch Conservative Brexiteer! And you have the nerve to call Nicola Sturgeon an attention seeker. It would seem to me that it is indeed you, Madame, who are the attention seeker, not Nicola Sturgeon.
That comment about Nicola Sturgeon was extremely unwise. In a few words, you have alienated many Scots. Moreover, if I am not greatly mistaken, you have given Nicola Sturgeon an enormous boost in her quest to separate from this England-dominated Union.
It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that if you win this Conservative leadership race, we Brits have a very rough, stony and bumpy road ahead. We Brits would all be well-advised to fasten our safety belts. – © Mark Alexander
