ALISTER Jack has suggested that Nicola Sturgeon has “incited people” like the Islamic extremist who murdered Tory MP David Amess with her “detest” comment.
The Scottish Secretary pointed the finger at the First Minister during an exchange with Douglas Ross in the House of Commons.
Ross, the leader of the Conservative Party in Scotland and MP for Moray, claimed the First Minister had insulted voters when she told the BBC on Sunday: “I detest the Tories and everything they stand for.”
Speaking at Scottish questions in Westminster, Ross said: “Devolution is about Scotland’s two governments working together, and we’ve seen the success of that with city and region growth deals, we’ve seen the success of that with the progress towards freeports.
“But does the Secretary of State agree with me that language is also really important, and when the First Minister said that she ‘detests the Tories’ she was – and the cheers coming from the SNP – she was insulting hundreds and thousands of Scottish Conservative voters when she should be representing the whole of Scotland as First Minister?”
In his response, Jack drew a connection between Sturgeon’s comment and the murderer of Tory MP David Amess, who told the court during his trial that he wanted to be seen as an “Islamic State militant”.
Jack responded: “Well, of course I agree with my honourable friend. Language is terribly important in politics.
“We saw the desperate death of David Amess and others before him and you cannot incite people using words like ‘detest’ – which as you’ll see in the dictionary has the other word as hate.
“And the irony is the Scottish Government bring forward a hate bill and yet we have language like detest. You are absolutely right to call it out.”
SNP MP Mhairi Black also brought up the First Minister’s comment in the Commons, asking Scotland Office minister David Duguid if he was truly surprised to discover how his party was viewed.
Black, the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, said: “After 12 years of austerity which has caused in excess of 300,000 deaths in the UK, this Tory government have cost the public billions and given dodgy Covid contracts to their polls, they’re scrapping the bankers’ bonus cap, they’ve forced a hard Brexit on Scotland against their will.
“They’re now helping the richest people in the country on the backs of millions of people who are choosing between heating and eating.
“So can I ask the minister, is it genuinely a surprise to him and his colleagues to discover why most people in Scotland do detest the Tory Party and their values?”
Duguid, who was given a role in the Scotland Office by Liz Truss after being sacked by Boris Johnson in 2021, responded: “I must say I’m disappointed that the honourable member chooses to double-down on the hate-filled language of her party leader.
“But I would repeat again that the Scottish Government has received a record amount of block-grant funding since devolution began of £41 billion, and all the other measures the people and businesses across Scotland will benefit from, particularly those in the most vulnerable households and on the lowest incomes.”
Sturgeon has refused to retract her “detest” statement, saying that she had seen Tory policies devastate communities.
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