Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to apologise after leaked WhatsApp messages describing Matt Hancock as “weaker than a nuns p*ss,” Liz Truss as “about as much use as a marzipan dildo,” and referring to Suella Braverman as “Sh*tler.”
These aren’t real messages sent by Nicola Sturgeon—they were posted by an X account which clearly describes itself as “satire”.
A post on X (formerly Twitter) claiming former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been “urged to apologise” for “leaked WhatsApp messages” about a number of high profile Conservative MPs has gone viral, with many posts failing to make clear that it is from an account which clearly describes itself as “satire”.
The post reads: “Nicola Sturgeon urged to apologise after leaked WhatsApp messages describing Matt Hancock as ‘Weaker than a nuns p*ss,’ Liz Truss as ‘About as much use as a marzipan dildo,’ and referring to Suella Braverman as ‘Sh*tler.’”
It was shared following the publication of real WhatsApp messages between Ms Sturgeon and her advisor Liz Lloyd released by the Covid Inquiry.
While these messages do show that Ms Sturgeon referred to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a “f*cking clown”, as some other of the posts on Facebook state, none of the above insults quoted in the Facebook posts feature in the messages.
Indeed, one of the insults is actually a quote from the BBC political satire The Thick Of It [1:00].
Despite this, the post has been shared widely on social media as if the quotes were genuine.
False or misleading claims about politicians online have the potential to harm trust in politics. Online claims can spread fast and far, and are difficult to contain and correct.
We’ve contacted Ms Sturgeon’s office for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
Image courtesy of Mika Baumeister
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as satire because these aren’t real messages sent by Nicola Sturgeon—they were posted by an X account which clearly describes itself as “satire”.
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