NICOLA Sturgeon has responded to the Tories' suspension of party member Jane Lax, who suggested the First Minister faked her miscarriage.Â
Lax, the party's treasurer in Moray, traded jokes with other Unionists on Twitter earlier this week. Yesterday, it emerged the Conservatives had suspended her.
Asked about the incident today, Sturgeon responded: "Well I absolutely think that it’s right for her to be suspended, obviously these comments are hurtful – and not just hurtful to me and to people close to me. I’ve been contacted by women who’ve also suffered miscarriages and these kind of comments also stir up hurtful and painful feelings in others as well.
.@NicolaSturgeon has welcomed the Scottish Conservatives decision to suspend Tory activist Jane Lax - describing her comments on Twitter as “hurtful” pic.twitter.com/5qFhPn1hez
— Alan Smith (@Political_AlanS) August 23, 2019
"So yes I welcome the fact she’s been suspended, I don’t particularly want to talk too much about what she said because I don’t want to dignify it with a response. I would say more generally though, for anybody who finds their political disagreements with somebody leading to make such offensive comments really has to take a long, hard look at themselves. And really think about what kind of person they are and hopefully she will learn from this."
On Tuesday, the anonymous Twitter account Agent P shared an interview in which Sturgeon detailed the abuse she receives online.
Replying, Georgina Sparrow, a retired midwife from Dumfrieshire with a record of organising pro-Union campaigns, tweeted: “Has she mentions [sic] her fictional miscarriage yet?”
Lax then replied: “Is that when she dropped a book?” and added three laughing emojis.Â
READ MORE:Â Tory member suspended over jibe about First Minister's miscarriage
A spokesman for the Tories said: “These comments are unacceptable. Her membership will be suspended pending a disciplinary procedure.”
Lax (below, right) could not be reached for comment.
The activist was at the centre of a storm earlier this year when she was one of four Tories in the audience for an edition of Question Time broadcast from Elgin.
In 2016, the First Minister revealed in 2016 that she and husband Peter Murrell had lost a baby.
In an interview for the book, Scottish National Party Leaders, the First Minister told of how she had suffered a miscarriage when she was 40.
In a statement released following the publication of extracts from the book in the Sunday Times magazine, Sturgeon said: "This was obviously a painful experience for Peter and I and while [book author Mandy Rhodes] has known about it for some time, she has always respected our decision not to talk about it publicly."
She said she hoped speaking out "challenge some of the assumptions and judgements that are still made about women – especially in politics – who don't have children".
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