The demonisation of Nicola Sturgeon has intensified as the popularity - and threat - of the SNP leader has grown

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

She is “Lady Macbeth” in high heels, a baby-killing “Godzilla”, a “Little Miss” with “bigger balls” than her male opponents.

The Scottish National party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has been coming under heavy fire from all quarters; from David Cameron’s Mean Girls-esque refusal to sit next to her on the Andrew Marr Show, to Boris Johnson’s Telegraph tirade calling her party “lefties on steroids”.



But the full-throttle campaign to take down Scotland’s first minister reached a climax on Tuesday when the Daily Mail dubbed her “the most dangerous woman in Britain” onits front page.



The SNP’s response? “The increasingly desperate and offensive language used by the Tories and some of the rightwing press in recent days only goes to show how rattled they are at the idea of a strong team of SNP MPs using our influence to put an end to austerity and to stand up for more progressive policies to benefit people across the UK,” a spokesman told the Guardian.

Inevitably, many of the insults – with not-so-veiled snipes at Sturgeon’s appearance and a “man-eater” metaphor at the end of every paragraph –are coming from men.



“You wouldn’t get Herod to run a baby farm, would you?”

Sturgeon described Boris Johnson’s doomsday comments in the Telegraph as “entirely offensive.. not just [to] people in Scotland but across the UK”.

“The most dangerous wee woman in the world”

Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) Tuesday's Daily Mail front page: Cosy tax deals of the NHS fat cats #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/pzi2UkNDT3

Sturgeon laughed off the comments in Piers Morgan’s MailOnline column when they were put to her by a Mail reporter – quipping “do I look dangerous?”. But the journalist never asked how she might have felt about being called “wee”.

“[Ed Miliband] would be the vacillating Macbeth, pushed hither and yon by Lady Macbeth, in the form of Nicola Sturgeon.”

Yes, Sturgeon is a powerful Scottish woman, so the Lady Macbeth comparison in Johnson’s Telegraph piece feels wearily predictable …



“Little Miss McHypocrite”

This headline in the Daily Mail topped a story outlining how Sturgeon’s parents bought their Ayreshire home under Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy policy in 1984. The jibe is echoed in Robert Hardman’s Saturday Mail column, where he repeatedly calls the SNP leader “Miss” Sturgeon, despite her five-year marriage to the SNP chief executive, Peter Murrell.

“The wrecking ball”

Styled on Miley Cyrus’ infamous nude music video, the Sun at least had the grace to cover Sturgeon in a tartan crop top and knickers, under the headline “Tartan Barmy”. Women for Independence called the picture “sheer misogyny”.

“Nicola Sturgeon may wear high heels and a short skirt, but she eats her partners alive”

Monday’s Sun column by Trevor Kavanagh was complemented by a cartoon Sturgeon, as well as Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and Green leader Natalie Bennett, mocked up as buxom Bond girls with visible nipples through sheer red dresses and crowding around a sweating Ed Miliband. It dubbed them “the scarlet sisterhood”.

“She’s got a natty new wardrobe of suits with matching stilettos and confidence way beyond her abilities.”

Even the left-leaning Mirror took a pop at Sturgeon’s appearance this week, as well as calling her a “human Dinky toy”.