A GRAPHIC designer who got Nicola Sturgeon to deliver a proposal of marriage to his boyfriend on his behalf has told how he hopes her kind action will persuade other governments around the world to back gay marriage.

Speaking to a newspaper for the first time since the proposal Paul Najda said the First Minister was “a great sport” to accept his spur of the moment request and astonished when the story went viral on social media after photographs of him on one knee alongside the First Minister and in front of partner Ian Johnstone were posted on Twitter and Facebook. The pictures have been seized on by campaigners in countries where gay marriage is not allowed with supporters rallying to Sturgeon and telling their leading politicians this is how a head of state should act.

Paul, 35, who lives in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, said his original plan was to propose to Ian at an event he was hoping to organise when he would hire a cinema and show a film he had made about the couple’s time together.

Instead, the idea of getting the First Minister to pop the question came to him when they arrived at an event where the Scottish  Cabinet were meeting members of the public.

“I know Ian is huge fan of Nicola Sturgeon and I like her a lot as well. I thought for him there would be no better way of being proposed to than getting her to ask the question on my behalf. I was thrilled when he accepted,” he told The National.

“I hope our story will inspire other governments to legalise gay marriage.

“We didn’t expect the picture to be put on Twitter and Facebook but we have been very pleasantly surprised by people in Australia and also in the United States. It’s been a very positive and exciting experience.”

Paul told The National that the idea came to him when he arrived at the public meeting in Oban on Monday night and the organisers asked the several hundred people attending to write down their questions for the First Minister and other Cabinet ministers and to put them in the box.

Ian had a question about equalities and men’s life expectancy, while Paul wrote down his proposal to Ian, asking Sturgeon to deliver it. The questions were put in a box and while Ian’s question was taken, Paul’s wasn’t.

Paul, who moved to Scotland from Poland in his 20s, explained: “Every time a question was taken out of the box, I thought to myself ‘well this is it’ but that didn’t happen and the event came to and end. But then I turned to Ian and said I’d really like him to come up and meet Nicola and tell her we had enjoyed the meeting and maybe get her picture taken with her.

“So we went to speak to her and she was very nice and Ian said ‘First Minister Paul had a question for you but it wasn’t chosen’. After a bit of persuasion I told her then what it was and that I wanted her on my behalf to ask Ian to marry me.

“She was a great sport. She said straightaway ‘what are you waiting for’ and turned and said to me ‘are you going to get down on one knee or will I?

“So I went down and Nicola said very eloquently ‘Ian will you take Paul to be your beloved husband for ever and ever? And Ian said he would. It was a lovely moment and not something I will ever forget.

“It was my engagement to Ian and I wanted him to be very happy and he was. It was far better than my original cinema plan.

“In fact I don’t think I could have come up with anything better. Nicola Sturgeon was so at ease and relaxed and afterwards everyone around starting congratulating us.”

Full-time dad Ian, 44, was among the first gay men in Scotland to adopt children in 2004, said he was thrilled to receive Paul’s proposal via the First

Minister and was looking forward to their wedding which they are hoping to arrange for March next year.

“What I loved about the First Minister was that she jumped right on it. Paul was a little bit hesitant, but she was really up for putting the question to me. She said ‘we’ll do it right now’. Paul was saying, ‘No we can’t, we can’t’, but she insisted and asked him where the ring was.’

“She said ‘Ian would you consider taking Paul you’re partner in life for marriage. And I said ‘Of course I will’ and she said ‘Right decision, this is brilliant’ and she gave us a big hug and she said the proposal was the highlight of her the evening.”

Ian said they had invited the First Minister to their wedding and she said she accepted the invitation so long as her diary arrangements permitted.

“To receive a wedding proposal from a First Minister on Paul’s behalf was just wonderful. She was as cool as a cucumber about it, so relaxed. She was enjoying a moment with people and I love that about her,” Ian added.

Posting a pic of the proposal on Monday night, Sturgeon wrote on Twitter: “Fave moment of #Oban public meeting tonight captured in this pic. Paul (seen here on one knee) asked me to deliver his marriage proposal to Ian on his behalf. I’m delighted to report that Ian said yes.

“Congratulations to them both.”