Sturgeon’s regret over National party name

NICOLA STURGEON has admitted she wishes she could change her party’s name because of the “hugely problematic” connotations of the word nationalism around the world.

The First Minister said that if she could turn the clock back to the formation of the Scottish National Party in 1934, she would not have the word “national” in the name. She was speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where a Turkish author said nationalism had a negative and ugly meaning for her, and asked if it could “ever be benign”.

Ms Sturgeon, whose party lost 21 seats in the general election, replied: “The word is difficult. If I could turn the clock back, what 90 years, to the establishment of my party, and choose its name all over again, I wouldn’t choose the name it has got just now. I would call it something other than the Scottish National Party.

“People say why don’t you change its name now? Well, that would be far too complicated.

“What those of us who do support Scottish independence are all about could not be further removed from some of what you would recognise as nationalism in other parts of the world.”

Earlier this year, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, incurred the wrath of the SNP when he wrote that there was no real difference between voting for an independent Scotland and “trying to divide us on the basis of background, race or religion”.