Sturgeon accused of using Trump tactics in referendum row

First Minister under attack for describing those who oppose a separation vote as ‘democracy deniers’

NICOLA STURGEON has been accused of resorting to the “Trump playbook” with “dangerous” language suggesting that Scots opposed to her independence referendum plans are not democrats.

Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, said the First Minister insulted millions of Scots who did not want a separation vote after arguing that her fellow nationalists were the “supporters of Scottish democracy”.

He said she had used “dangerous and harmful language” that branded those who would rather she focused on the NHS crisis as “democracy deniers”.

Alex Cole-hamilton, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, tweeted: “This ‘Scotland’s democracy movement’ title is straight out of the Trump playbook and can get in the bin.”

In an extraordinary intervention, a senior SNP MP representing the same part of Glasgow as Ms Sturgeon appeared to criticise her warning that she would not allow “Scottish democracy to be a prisoner of Westminster”.

Stewart Mcdonald, the Glasgow South MP, tweeted that “we must shun talk of being imprisoned or shackled” as he warned that the independence campaign was “not a liberation struggle, but one of democratic, social and economic renewal and empowerment”.

He said the SNP did not need “the court to tell us” that Scotland is not an official colony. However, the justices only made this point when rejecting an SNP submission citing a court case that referred to “oppressed” people.

The barrage of criticism for Ms Sturgeon’s rhetoric came after she addressed a rally outside Holyrood following Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling blocking a separation vote, telling hundreds of separatists that they had become “Scotland’s democracy movement”.

She had earlier accused the UK Government of “outright democracy denial”, a position she predicted was “unsustainable” despite polls showing a majority of Scots oppose holding a referendum on Oct 19 next year.

Mr Ross said: “I think the language we’ve heard from Nicola Sturgeon over the last 24 hours about democracy deniers is very dangerous and harmful.”

“There’s millions of Scots who don’t want another referendum right now.

“It’s their First Minister telling them they are democracy deniers because they want the focus to be on the health service.”

Attacking Ms Sturgeon’s language, Mr Cole-hamilton, the Edinburgh Western MSP, tweeted: “I was elected to oppose a referendum with more votes than any other candidate in the history of the Scottish Parliament. It’s my democratic duty to continue to oppose it.”

Ms Sturgeon claimed she would have a mandate to open independence negotiations with the UK Government if nationalist parties won a majority of the popular vote in last year’s Scottish elections, but this has been given short shrift by Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.

Neil Gray, the SNP’S Culture Minister, has echoed Ms Sturgeon’s language, saying: “The ‘Yes’ movement, the independence movement in Scotland, now becomes the democracy movement in Scotland because it is incumbent, it is not a small question, it is not a small issue, to expect governments to respect democracy.”

Ms Sturgeon’s official spokesman said: “The only people behaving like Donald Trump are people who try and deny the reality of election results.

“They are trying to deny the reality of an election result in a free and fair democracy.”