Nicola Sturgeon: Liz Truss’s comments make me angry on behalf of Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon has said that Liz Truss’s comments about her made her “angry on behalf of Scotland”.

The Tory leadership candidate said she would “ignore” Sturgeon on the question of a second independence referendum at a hustings earlier this month, accusing the SNP leader of being an “attention seeker”.

Being interviewed by Iain Dale at an Edinburgh Fringe event today, Sturgeon said she initially thought the comments were “a spoof”.

She said: “Initially, and this is my reaction to a lot of what is coming out of the Tory party leadership election, I thought it was a spoof, I thought it was made up.

“It didn’t make me angry on my own…but it kind of makes me angry on behalf of Scotland. Not everybody in Scotland supports me or my party – I recognise that. Some people will like me as a politician, others will loathe me.

“But I am the democratically elected First Minister of Scotland. When you say that I should be ignored, then effectively you’re saying Scotland’s democratic choices and preferences should be ignored.

“What you are effectively saying is that Scotland should be ignored, and we’ve heard that for too long and too often from the Tories. Scotland will not be ignored, certainly not while I’m First Minister.”

Sturgeon said she had only met Truss in person once – at an event at Kelvingrove in Glasgow during the COP26 climate summit last year.

“This is going to sound really up myself…I had just been interviewed by Vogue and had a photoshoot – as you do. That was the main thing she wanted to talk about. She wanted to know how she could get into Vogue.”

On Boris Johnson, Sturgeon said he had been “a disgrace to the office of prime minister”.

Asked by Dale whether she “missed” former Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson, Sturgeon said: “I don’t miss her, no. I think Ruth is very able, a great communicator. Ruth, frankly, has deserted elected office and that’s fine if she wanted to leave politics, but Ruth clearly wants to continue to have a political career.

“She wants to have all the easy bits of a political career, she just doesn’t want to have any of the scrutiny or accountability or have to bother with putting herself up for election. I don’t think that’s a position that commands much respect or legitimacy, frankly.”

Asked if she had seen her former mentor Alex Salmond recently or whether she intends to see him in future, Sturgeon replied: “Nope”.