Dugdale: Smear is the standard SNP reaction

Scottish Labour leader speaks out against treatment of nurse who took on Sturgeon live on TV

Kezia Dugdale has accused the First Minister of being involved in the systemic smearing of ordinary voters.

Nicola Sturgeon was challenged by nurse Claire Austin over the 1% public sector pay cap during Sunday night’s live television debates.

Senior SNP figures repeated false claims the nurse was married to a Tory councillor, while party staff scoured her social media accounts to try to contradict her claim she relied on foodbanks.

Speaking at Scottish Labour’s manifesto launch, leader Ms Dugdale said those tactics are a “trend from ‘cybernats’ on Twitter right up to the First Minister” whenever the party comes under pressure.

She said: “First of all it’s to tell you things are better than in England and, if you don’t buy that, then it’s basically to smear, punish and try and expose the individual who has been brave enough to speak up. And I think it back-fired on the SNP spectacularly last night. That woman was speaking the truth.”

Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said the “smear operation points to something endemic within the SNP”.

“I was sitting alongside Joanna Cherry (SNP candidate in Edinburgh South West) as she claimed on the BBC that the nurse was the wife of a Tory councillor. She was being urged to say so by the Scottish Government’s welfare minister Jeanne Freeman.”

At the manifesto launch in Edinburgh, Ms Dugdale issued a “cast iron guarantee” to oppose Nicola Sturgeon’s demands for another independence referendum. The Lothians MSP said the pursuit of a new constitutional ballot meant education, health and the economy had been “sacrificed on the altar of a dogmatic, nationalist agenda”.

In a demonstration of the splits over Trident within the party, the Scottish Labour manifesto defies the party’s own position on scrapping the nuclear weapons system and adopts the UK one, which is for renewal.

Ms Dugdale also said she will adopt the same income tax proposals that the public rejected in the Holyrood election last year, in order to invest in public services. That includes a 1p hike in income tax for basic ratepayers, which includes those paid below the starting salary of a nurse.

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s depute leader, said: “This manifesto launch shows once more Kezia Dugdale’s desire to hit the poorest in our society with a bumper tax bill – seeking to raise the tax burden of those on the lowest incomes.”