A BANNER comparing Scotland’s First Minister to Adolf Hitler has sparked outrage and a police investigation after being put on railings close to Bute House.

The “appalling” graphic, photographed by Graham Maxwell and shared by a friend online, shows an image of Nicola Sturgeon with a drawn-on Hitler moustache and text reading: “Herr Sturgeon for Fuhrer.

“Ve vill keep Scotland in Lochdown until ze UK gives ME vot I vont!!! Vote for me, to kill the economy.”

The banner appears to have been put up close to the First Minister’s official Edinburgh residence after Boris Johnson made sweeping changes to lockdown in England.

From July 4, restaurants, pubs, bars and many other places which were forced to close by the coronavirus lockdown will be opened up with new safety precautions in place south of the Border.

Speaking in Holyrood yesterday, Sturgeon said these re-openings would not be going ahead in Scotland until later in July – stressing the importance of getting the level of Covid-19 infections down as far as possible.

Scottish Conservatives have complained that Scots will not be able to “benefit” from the unlocking of the economy in England soon enough, but the First Minister has been insistent that we have further to go in the fight against coronavirus.

Online, people were outraged by the banner – with Twitter users calling it “appalling” and “obscene”.

On Facebook people were quick to point out that “it’s not even correct”, as “‘herr’ in German means Mr”.

“If your going to try and insult someone at least get the translation correct,” one commenter wrote, with another adding: “Try Frau next time you confuse caution with fascism.”

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Another person wrote: “Someone went to a lot of trouble to have this piece of garbage made.”

Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson joined the myriad voices in condemning the banner.

She wrote: “A picture is circulating of a banner posted on railings at Charlotte Square in my Edinburgh Central constituency. I won’t give it further oxygen by linking to it. I condemn it in the strongest terms.

“Come on Scotland, we can do politics better than this.”

However, another Tory MSP, Murdo Fraser, referred to the announced police investigation and questioned why officers would look into “some offensive banners and not all of them”.

Sharing a picture of pro-independence marchers holding a banner stating “Tory scum out”, Fraser said “surely both of these despicable messages should be treated the same”.

Commenting on the newly opened investigation, a Police Scotland spokesperson said: “On Thursday, June 25, police received a report of an offensive banner at Charlotte Square in Edinburgh.

“Officers attended and the banner had been removed. Inquiries are ongoing.”

The First Minister has acknowledged she has eased the lockdown more slowly than the Prime Minister has done in England, but rejected the idea of entering a “reckless race” with other parts of the UK to get the country up and running again.

The SNP leader has consistently stressed the need to put safety first in re-opening the economy and getting Scotland back to some kind of normality.