THE host of an event at which Nicola Sturgeon was twice heckled has defended the former first minister, saying that responding to the crowd’s shouts “became impossible”.
The former SNP leader appeared at Eastwood Theatre, by Rouken Glen in south Glasgow, on Saturday evening for the launch of the paperback version of her book Frankly, at which she was interviewed by journalist Graham Spiers.
Activist Sean Clerkin – whose complaint to Police Scotland sparked the Operation Branchform probe into the SNP – and an unnamed woman were both removed from the event after heckling Sturgeon from the crowd.
The Scotsman reported that the woman had shouted “Was Alex Salmond fitted up to hide the corruption within the SNP?”, to which Sturgeon responded: “Are you going to sit down again and listen to the answer, or are you going to scarper?
“No, Alex Salmond was not fitted up. Alex Salmond was responsible for his own behaviour. I wasn't responsible for it.”
Clerkin then asked about the money raised by the SNP under Sturgeon which was allegedly “ring-fenced” for a second independence referendum, but then spent on party running costs.
Sturgeon said she would “always take responsibility for the things I do”, and then thanked the supportive crowd “for that reaction to these yobs”.
In a video posted to social media afterwards, Clerkin accused Sturgeon of leading a “cult” and appeared to link her to Adolf Hitler’s idea of the “big lie” – a lie so massive that people cannot believe anyone would invent it.
He said: “There was once a very famous politician once said, people believe lies, and the bigger the lie you tell, the more they believe it. It seems to me that these people are in that category.”
Responding on social media, Spiers said of Clerkin: “If he could only have stopped bawling, just for even 10 seconds, Nicola Sturgeon was trying to answer him.
“She tried on two or three occasions to answer him but he just couldn’t stop shouting. Answering you became impossible.
“He simply couldn’t calm down. He was bawling questions at Nicola but had absolutely no patience or aptitude to receive the answer. He couldn’t stop and listen. He just got over-excited in the moment.”
Asked about the woman who had been “dragged out” before Clerkin’s heckles, Spiers said: “Oh for God’s sake. Nobody was ‘dragged out’. Can you not use language properly?
“If the pair of them could simply have asked their questions – yes, even shouted them – and then listened to the answers, fine. But they couldn’t stop bawling. They asked but couldn’t listen.”
Earlier on Saturday, Sturgeon had appeared at an Iain Dale All Talk show at the Edinburgh Fringe, making headlines with attacks on Joanna Cherry and JK Rowling, who she said were “obsessed” with her.
Sturgeon also suggested that Cherry's book, which covered her time in the SNP from 2015, was "shit".
