NICOLA Sturgeon has accused Jo Swinson of being “a bit sensitive” about her record in government after she won a legal challenge against a “defamatory” SNP leaflet.
The UK Liberal Democrat leader instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Session on Tuesday to stop the SNP distributing the leaflet in her East Dunbartonshire constituency.
The flyer accused Ms Swinson of being a hypocrite on fracking - wrongly accusing of her accepting a £14,000 donation from a “fracking company”.
After hearing details of the SNP’s claim, Lord Pentland ruled it was “false in substance and materially inaccurate” and appeared on its face to be “defamatory”.
READ MORE: Jo Swinson wins court battle against SNP
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie today wrote to Ms Sturgeon urging her to issue “an unreserved apology in light” of the ruling.
However at the SNP manifesto launch in Glasgow, Ms Sturgeon was unrepentant, and denied her party had been misleading voters in East Dunbartonshire.
She said: “We of course respect the judgment of the court and will honour that judgment.
“But beyond that in a general sense, Jo Swinson has a record she needs to be prepared to defend and it’s not a good record.
"It’s a record on austerity, on welfare, on fracking, on a whole host of other things, and she seems a bit sensitive when it’s raised.
“But it’s going to continue to be raised because she can’t run away from it.”
Ms Swinson, who was a junior business minister in the Tory-LibDem Coalition of 2010-15, said she was “very pleased” at Lord Pentland’s ruling.
Campaigning in East Dunbartonshire, she said: “Obviously we all need to take responsibility to make sure we speak with accuracy, and I think the court's decision speaks for itself in that case. We can certainly do that and have that good robust debate without being defamatory to other people."
READ MORE: Jo Swinson seen as 'unfavourable' by one in two British voters
Mr Rennie called on Ms Sturgeon to "set the record straight" with a written apology and new leaflets carrying that apology “to be delivered in the constituency".
He said: "The SNP owe Jo Swinson and local people in East Dunbartonshire a full and unreserved apology. These sort of attacks should have no place in Scottish politics, and by setting the record straight Nicola Sturgeon can point a direction for the rest of her party to follow. Failure to do so will send all the wrong signals"
“We look forward to Nicola Sturgeon doing the right thing.”
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