Liz Truss dubbed Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon an “attention-seeker” on Monday, only for the insult to quickly come back and bite her on Twitter.
The Conservative leadership hopeful, who is currently the favourite to become the next prime minister, appealed to unionists on Monday night during the Tory membership hustings by criticising Sturgeon.
The leader of the Scottish Nationalists (SNP) has renewed pressure on Downing Street to approve of a second independence referendum – a request Boris Johnson’s government rejected last month.
Pressed on what to do over the growing separatist sentiment in Scotland, Truss said: “The best thing to do with Nicola Sturgeon is ignore her.”
Speaking in Exeter, the current foreign secretary continued: “I’m sorry, she’s an attention seeker, that’s what she is.”
While this appeared to please the audience at the hustings, Truss’ Twitter critics haven’t forgotten about her own repeated photoshoots over the years...
Others also pointed out that suggesting to “ignore” the democratically elected head of one of the four UK nations was probably not the best idea.
Truss has been toughening up her language when it comes to the pressure from Scotland over another independence referendum.
On Sunday, she vowed that Indyref2 would not happen “on my watch” if she was elected to No.10, as Holyrood needs central government’s permission to hold such a public vote.
Truss claimed: “You cannot just keep having polls until you get the result you want. It is undemocratic for Scotland and our United Kingdom.”
“We are in the midst of a cost of living crisis and it is an increasingly uncertain time for the world,” she continued. “So the SNP should be focusing on delivering for the Scottish people and fixing the mistakes they have made in policing, education and beyond.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunities minister and a Truss’ supporter, echoed these sentiments on Tuesday, saying Sturgeon is “always moaning” and is “very often wrong”.
Truss’ line is distinctly stronger than the one taken by Johnson. He only said that now is not the time for the Scottish electorate to vote on whether to remain part of the UK right now.
The first referendum took place in 2014, and saw the pro-UK campaign win by 55% to 45%.
Sturgeon has promised that if Westminster continues to reject a Indyref2, she will turn the next general election into a “de facto referendum”.