NICOLA Sturgeon’s character has become an issue in the closing hours of the election after she was accused of “dirty, gutter politics” for revealing the contents of a private conversation.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the First Minister had “diminished her office” by making an explosive - and disputed - claim about what the pair discussed after the EU referendum.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson also labelled Ms Sturgeon a “clype”, or telltale, and said people would “make up their own minds about the First Minister’s character”.
She accused Ms Sturgeon of breaking a confidence to “score a cheap political point”.
Ms Sturgeon electrified the last TV debate of the election on Tuesday night by claiming Ms Dugdale told her Labour could drop its opposition to a second referendum because of Brexit.
The accusation, which Ms Dugdale later called a “categoric lie”, undermined Scottish Labour’s core message in the election, that it would always oppose another “divisive” referendum.
The Tories seized on the charge to claim Labour could not be trusted to defend the Union.
Campaigning in Edinburgh the morning after the debate, Ms Dugdale said the SNP leader deliberately made the claim to help the Tories, because she wanted to keep Theresa May in power to bolster support for independence.
She said: “I’m disappointed the First Minister has chosen to diminish her office in that way… She decided to resort to some dirty gutter politics in the final hours of the campaign.
“I have never been anything but clear that I stand firmly opposed to independence, and a second independence referendum because of the damage it would do to Scotland’s economy.”
She confirmed the call had taken place in the early hours of the morning after the EU result was announced last June, but said the pair had simply shared their mutual disappointment.
She said she had been “stunned” by the First Minister’s accusation in the debate.
Speaking later in the capital, Ms Davidson also attacked Ms Sturgeon’s actions.
She said: “I’m strongly of the opinion that private conversations should stay private.
“I think people will make up their own minds about the First Minister’s character, in terms of spilling private conversations.
"People will make a decision themselves if it talks to character if somebody will tell a private conversation, that happened at a really important time of Scotland’s political history, a year later on the eve of an election to score a cheap political point.
"People will make their own mind up.”
She suggested Ms Sturgeon may have lashed out because Ms Dugdale had been sharply critical of the First Minister in recent days, and she was also rattled by the polls.
She said: “I think the SNP and the First Minister are rattled because they’re seeing that the hegemony they managed to create...is crumbling.”
She said that in talks between the UK and Scottish Governments over Brexit, Mrs May would not leave herself open “to this kind of tittle-tattle and clyping”, adding: “I would expect Theresa May will ensure there’s always an official in the room when she meets Nicola Sturgeon.”
There were multiple theories at Holyrood as to why Ms Sturgeon had made the claim, given its immediate benefit to the Tories, who are the main threat to the SNP in the election.
One senior Tory suggested it had may have been done simply to “destabilise” Labour,
However government sources said Ms Sturgeon spoke out to expose what she considered Ms Dugdale’s “hypocrisy” for opposing a referendum she had previously entertained.
The First Minister had been “biting her tongue for months”, one said.
It is understood Ms Sturgeon’s move was a calculated rather than ad libbed, with the line discussed as an “option” during her preparation for the debate.
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