Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has argued that UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had asked for her advice on being featured in Vogue magazine when they briefly rubbed elbows at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) in 2021.
Speaking to LBC Radio on Wednesday, Sturgeon referred to her meeting with the Conservative leadership frontrunner on the sidelines of COP26 last fall, which came shortly after her second interview with the magazine was released.
“[…] I’d just been interviewed by Vogue, […] that was the main thing she [Truss] wanted to talk to me about, she wanted to know how she could get into Vogue – and she calls me an attention-seeker,” the Scottish first minister claimed, referring to her recent showdown with the foreign secretary.
According to Sturgeon, “I said to her they came and asked me. I didn’t really mean to do this, but I said to her it hadn’t actually been my first time in Vogue, it had been my second time. It looked a little bit as if she’d swallowed a wasp. I’m sure she’ll be in Vogue before too long.”
The remarks came after Truss slammed Sturgeon during a Tory leadership race event last week, also making it clear that she rules out a second Scottish independence referendum.
“I feel like I’m a child of the union, I really believe we’re a family and we’re better together and I think the best thing to do with Nicola Sturgeon is ignore her,” the foreign secretary said, adding, “she’s an attention seeker, that’s what she is.”
In late June, Sturgeon proposed that a new vote on Scotland's independence be held on October 19, 2023.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson responded in a letter to the Scottish first minister that now was not the time to deal with the issue because of problems at home and around the world. The PM has repeatedly stated that he will not allow a second referendum, since the people of Scotland expressed their will in 2014, when 44.7% voted for independence and 55.3% said “no” to it.