First Minister’s spin doctor condemned after ‘Unionist election deniers’ rant

NICOLA Sturgeon’s official spokesman has been accused of “inflammatory rhetoric” after claiming Unionist parties are refusing to accept the result of the 2021 Holyrood election.

The First Minister’s chief spin doctor launched into the “wild” and “provocative” rant during the Scottish Government’s regular weekly media briefing after FMQS.

He appeared unhappy at Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Colehamilton attacking Ms Sturgeon for rebranding the Yes campaign as “Scotland’s democracy movement”.

The First Minister announced the change at a rally on Wednesday after losing her bid to secure Indyref2 at the UK Supreme Court.

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

The First Minister’s spokesman said: “The only people behaving like Donald Trump are the Unionist politicians who are trying to pretend they won an election they lost.”

Asked if he was saying those parties were denying the 2021 result, he said: “They appear to be. There’s a clear majority for a referendum in parliament. They appear to be in some way questioning or denying that.”

Asked again if the parties didn’t accept the election result, he said: “They don’t accept the result.”

He added: “There is a clear denial of democracy at play. They’re trying to deny the reality of an election result in a free and fair democracy.”

Asked if opposing a referendum was denying democracy, he said: “Well, if there is a democratic mandate for a referendum, which there is, and they stand in the way of that, that’s a denial of democracy.”

Asked how they were standing in the way, he said: “In everything they say about it.” Asked to narrow it down, he said: “I’m not going to engage in this theatre of the absurd. They don’t accept the reality of the election result.”

The Libdems said: “This is turning into an embarrassing spectacle for the nationalists.

“After the Supreme Court comprehensively dismantled their case, it seems as if all they can do is dial up the inflammatory rhetoric.”

Tory MSP Donald Cameron said the spokesman’s “provocative language and absurd claims” reflected poorly on Ms Sturgeon, adding: “These wild comments are a reminder of what we could expect if there was another referendum.”