Sturgeon praises walkout

NICOLA Sturgeon has praised sports broadcaster Eilidh Barbour for walking out of an awards ceremony in protest at “unacceptable” comments in a speech.

The Perthshire-born host left the Scottish Football Writers’ Awards and later said remarks by the after-dinner speaker Bill Copeland were “degrading” to women.

She also said the speech included “homophobic jibes” and that “offensive racial terms should never be funny”.

Raising the issue at Holyrood during First Minster’s Questions, SNP MSP Joe FitzPatrick – a former sports minister – said the event appeared to “be a shocking illustration of the outdated discriminatory attitudes that still exist in football and indeed in journalism that need to be eradicated”.

The first minister paid tribute to Ms Barbour and others at the event “who I think very courageously took a stand and spoke out”.