SCOTTISH Secretary Alister Jack has warned that the First Minister risks inciting violence against politicians.
The minister raised the brutal murder of David Amess as he criticised the SNP leader for saying she "detests" Tories.
On Sunday, during an interview on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg show, Nicola Sturgeon was asked if she would prefer Liz Truss or Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.
The SNP leader said: “If the question to me is would I prefer a Labour government over a Tory government — I detest the Tories and everything they stand for — so it’s not difficult to answer that question.”
The comment sparked anger from Tory politicians.
It was raised in the Commons on Wednesday during Scotland Questions by Douglas Ross.
The Scottish Tory leader asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he agreed that “language is also really important”.
“When the First Minister said that she detests the Tories she is insulting hundreds of thousands of Scottish Conservative voters when she should be representing the whole of Scotland as First Minister,” he said.
Mr Jack said he agreed. “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 is hate.
“And the irony is the Scottish Government bring forward a hate [crime] bill, and yet we have language like detest. You're absolutely right to call it out.”
Sir David was called on October 15 last year.
Islamic State fanatic Ali Harbi Ali, 26, was found guilty of carrying out the “cold and calculating” murder.
He told the Old Bailey trial he had no regrets about the murder, defending his actions by saying Sir David deserved to die as a result of voting in Parliament for airstrikes on Syria in 2014 and 2015.
A jury deliberated for just 18 minutes to find the man guilty of murder and preparing for terrorist acts.
Sir David was killed five years after Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox was murdered in her constituency.
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