Nicola Sturgeon has dismissed “aspiring” First Minister Rishi Sunak as saying he would stop the SNP “in its tracks”.
The Prime Minister broke her silence in the face of increasingly strident statements from Conservative Party leadership hopefuls Sunak and Liz Truss to say she had heard it all before.
Sunak said on Friday it would be “dangerously complacent” to ignore the threat Scottish nationalists pose to the Union, saying “Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP pose an existential threat”.
His comments come after Mr. Sunak Liz Truss said she would “ignore” Nicola Sturgeon and described the Prime Minister as an “attention seeker”.
Ms Sturgeon responded on Saturday morning by tweeting the front page of a national newspaper featuring Mr Sunak’s comments.
The SNP leader said she was “Wondering how many opposition leaders/aspirants I’ve heard this from now”.
I wonder how many opposition leaders/aspirants I’ve heard this from now… 🤔 pic.twitter.com/APj2wC9TeP
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) August 6, 2022
Mr Sunak said on Friday: “Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP pose an existential threat to our beloved union.”
“To argue that we should ignore them is dangerously complacent.
“We can’t bury our heads in the sand and pretend they aren’t there, we have to stop them in their tracks.
“This is exactly what I would do as Prime Minister: hold the SNP to account for their failures and make sure personally that the UK government is focused on delivering every part of our UK.”
Recent polls, Sunak’s team have stressed, show he is more popular than the Foreign Secretary in Scotland.
But Mrs Truss, who spent time during her childhood living in Paisley, has been described by Scottish supporters as a “daughter of the union”.
Sunak and Mrs. Truss struggle to become leaders
Last night SNP MP Mhairi Black said Mr Sunak has “no idea” what ordinary people are dealing with.
“Rishi Sunak is the same guy who has slashed Universal Credit by over £1,000 per million, increased National Insurance payouts and now just admitted he wants to take public money from areas that need it most and deliver- them in the wealthiest cities,” she said.
“He has made it abundantly clear that he only stands for one thing, making the rich richer and the poor poorer, and the people of Scotland know that.
“As the richest MP in Westminster, he has no idea what ordinary people in Scotland and elsewhere face on a daily basis during this Tory-created cost of living crisis, while bills and food prices they shoot
“Scotland has not voted Conservative for over 50 years, yet we continue to surround ourselves with Conservative governments and Conservative First Ministers who will only work to widen the inequality gap and try to block Scotland’s democratic right to choose its own future.”
John Swinney
Deputy First Minister John Swinney previously described Ms Truss’s comments as “hateful”, saying that “the people of Scotland, whatever their politics, will be absolutely horrified.
He added: “I think Liz Truss, with a silly and over-the-top intervention, has fundamentally undermined the argument she is trying to make that Scotland can somehow be treated fairly and well at the heart of the UK.”