17:30

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has told an audience at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that there is “no place in Scotland” for anti-English sentiment, insisting that the “civic nationalism” of the SNP was “on another spectrum altogether” from “far right, racist, insular movements” seen in other parts of the world.

Asked by comedian Matt Forde about Scottish nationalism, Sturgeon said:

A lot of the regimes called nationalist today are not countries striving to be independent, because often they already are, but are based on some kind of racial exceptionalism or superiority - often very illiberal and oppressive of minorities. And Scottish independence is not just at the other end of the spectrum of that, but on another spectrum altogether.

Questioned specifically about a protester who has been pictured on the Royal Mile with a ‘England get out of Scotland’ banner, Sturgeon said:

The person with that banner does not speak for the SNP. That kind of sentiment has no place in Scotland. You can’t get to a situation in any party where you say we’ll never attract the wrong kind of person but you can be absolutely vehement and resolute about calling it out. The people who put up that banner, I don’t want them in the SNP.

Sturgeon also made reference to the online reaction to comments made by the Scottish national poet Jackie Kay over the weekend about Scotland’s relationship with race. She said:

At the heart of what she was saying was that for all the progress we have made, Scotland still has a lot of work to do on tackling racism and equality. She got a lot of criticism online from people who would not accept that there’s anything wrong with Scotland and frankly we should never be complacent about racism or bigotry.

Sturgeon was also challenged about the behaviour of independence supporters online, but said that there was “an unrealistic expectation given social media and the way people operate online that any leader of any party can police that completely”.

To laughter from the audience, she added:

I’m not responsible for everything people say on Twitter, thank God! It cuts both ways. Some, which I try not to look at, of the abuse I get would literally make your hair curl, it’s horrible, misogynist, filthy, disgusting and women across all parties get that. There’s a much bigger debate, not confined to Scotland, about how social media is distorting our political debate.