On Monday night, the Tory leadership candidate was asked how she would handle calls for Scottish independence. The Holyrood parliament has a majority of pro-independence MSPs, elected on a manifesto pledge to hold a vote this term.
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Sturgeon plans to hold indyref2 by October 2023, but if the current High Court case rules that a Holyrood vote without UK consent is illegal, she will use the next election as a de facto referendum.
Truss argued that Sturgeon was best “ignored” and called her an “attention seeker”.
“I feel like I’m a child of the Union, I really think we’re a family and we’re better together and I think the best thing to do with Nicola Sturgeon is to ignore her,” he told Tory members – who booed. raised the remarks with cheers and applause.
“He’s looking for attention, that’s what he is,” added the prime minister’s hopeful.
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While Deputy Foreign Secretary John Sweeney called the comments “completely unacceptable” and Truss managed to spark outrage among former Tory MSPs and Better Together campaigners, the First Minister herself remained silent.
Sturgeon remained silent as Truss repeated her comments, saying she would not apologize to the SNP leader.
But on Friday night he addressed the big row with a joke on social media – showing he hadn’t understood it.
Spot this cute seal in beautiful Argyll. I think he might be a bit of an attention seeker 🦭😉 pic.twitter.com/MwJUPgUteu
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) August 5, 2022
“Spotted this cute seal in beautiful Argyll,” he shared. “I think he might be a bit attention seeking,” followed by a winking emoji.
Independence campaigner and musician Iona Fyfe called the post “experienced trolling”.
“Well done FM,” another commenter added.
Supporter Barry O’Neill also praised the backlash, writing: “Nobody engaging in personal mudslinging. but focused on delivering for the people who democratically elected her! An absurd joke is perfect Scottish humour.’
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The intervention came as Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar gave his take on the Truce outbreak.
Speaking at a Community Hall event, Mr Sarwar said his party was “desperate” for a general election to expose the UK and Scottish governments’ failures to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Sarwar said: “What we need is not this rhetoric from our two governments, not this fake battle between Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Nicola Sturgeon.
“What we need is for our governments to pull their heads out of the sand, to take urgent action so we can stop people starving in our country.”
He added: “I would beg Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, I would beg Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and the Conservative party – get over yourselves.
“Stop focusing on your own obsessions about dividing people and start thinking about how we feed people in our country.”
