Sturgeon: I’ll duck Donald’s invitation

NICOLA Sturgeon has snubbed Donald Trump by turning down an official invitation to attend the relaunch of his Ayrshire golf resort.

The US Presidential candidate will officially reopen Turnberry later this month after its £200 million refurbishment.

The billionaire’s company invited the First Minister and three other Scottish political leaders to attend.

But The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal that every one of them has turned down the invitation, although Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has said he will only attend if Mr Trump agrees to meet Muslim leaders during his visit.

It comes amid a growing outcry about the Republican candidate’s presidential campaign, after he called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Miss Sturgeon branded the comments ‘repugnant’. Her spokesman confirmed last night that she has turned down an invitation to attend the Turnberry relaunch event, which takes place on June 24 – the day after the EU referendum.

The spokesman said Miss Sturgeon ‘will not be attending’.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, who referred to Mr Trump last year as a ‘clay-brained guts, knotty-pated fool, whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch’, has also rejected his invitation because she has ‘a full day of media engagements planned’ after the EU referendum result.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, who described Mr Trump as ‘an a***’ in an interview during the Holyrood election campaign, has also turned down the invitation. Her spokesman said: ‘On the day we will learn the outcome of the EU referendum the visit of Donald Trump is not a priority.’

Hundreds of people have signed a petition demanding that Mr Trump meets members of Edinburgh’s Annandale Mosque and Roxburgh Street Mosque and Cultural Centre during his visit. Mr Rennie said: ‘Mr Trump may have closed his mind to other cultures but it seems Edinburgh’s Muslim community are ready to open their doors to The Donald and teach him about Islam.

‘Mr Trump is a candidate for President of the United States. Being able to work with people of different cultures is a prerequisite of the job.

‘Bullies often talk big but act small and no one talks bigger than Donald Trump. Unless he accepts this invitation people will think he is a coward.’

Mr Trump bought Turnberry hotel and golf course, an Open championship venue, in 2014 for an undisclosed sum and subsequently rebranded it ‘Trump Turnberry’.

Miss Sturgeon has been one of his most vocal critics in the UK. She revoked his status as a business ambassador for Scotland after his call for a ban on Muslims, which provoked 586,410 people to sign a petition calling for him to be barred from entering the UK.

‘Bullies often talk big but act small’