Shropshire Star

SNP leader defends candidate amid debate nurse ‘smear campaign’ claims

Opposition parties accused the SNP of participating in a “smear” and of using “dirty tricks”.

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Nicola Sturgeon has defended an SNP candidate amid accusations of a “smear campaign” against a nurse who challenged the First Minister.

Ms Sturgeon said Joanna Cherry QC, the SNP candidate for Edinburgh South West, made an “honest mistake” following the televised BBC General Election debate on Sunday, but criticised personal attacks made on audience member Claire Austin.

The NHS nurse faced abuse on social media after telling the SNP leader she had to resort to food banks and pressing her on public-sector pay.

Personal attacks as well as a false allegation that she was the wife of a Tory councillor circulated on Twitter and Ms Cherry was forced to apologise after repeating the claim to BBC Scotland.

She later tweeted the unmarried nurse: “Sorry I was wrong about Twitter rumours. Entirely right that your voice is heard.”

Opposition parties accused the SNP of participating in a “smear” and of using “dirty tricks”.

Backing Ms Cherry, Ms Sturgeon told BBC Scotland: “She made a mistake, an honest mistake, and she apologised for that. In terms of the wider social media reaction, I don’t think it’s acceptable to make judgements about somebody’s background.

“The nurse on the debate last night was absolutely entitled to raise the issue that she did. She raised an issue that is one of the biggest issues in this campaign – the level and value of real wages not just in the public sector but in the private sector.”

Challenging the First Minister during the debate, Ms Austin said: “There’s thousands and thousands of nurse positions unfilled and the reason for that is it’s such low pay. It’s just not a sustainable income, we can’t live on it.”

She said colleagues were considering leaving nursing, adding: “You have no idea how demoralising it is to work in the NHS.”

The nurse, who also previously appeared on the BBC’s Question Time, was forced to defend herself after Twitter users highlighted pictures of her drinking wine and apparently on holiday in New York.

Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: “I was sitting alongside Joanna Cherry as she claimed on the BBC that the nurse was the wife of a Tory councillor. She was being urged to say so by the Scottish Government’s welfare minister Jeane Freeman.

“It was a disgraceful episode and Nicola Sturgeon and her party should be thoroughly ashamed. This smear operation points to something endemic within the SNP.

“Its supporters talk over critics, not listen. And the nationalists will always try to play the man, not the ball. This kind of behaviour is utterly unacceptable.”

Launching Scottish Labour’s General Election manifesto in Edinburgh, leader Kezia Dugdale said: “What was the response of the SNP when confronted with that reality last night?

“The Nationalists started a smear campaign. They tried their usual dirty tricks. But it won’t work this time.”

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