Deputy Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugale has called on the First Minister to take on the perpetrators of online abuse, starting with the sacking of an SNP candidate.
Neil Hay, the party’s candidate for Edinburgh South, has apologised after he used Twitter to post offensive messages.
During heated exchanges at First Minister’s Questions, Ms Dugdale said an apology from Mr Hay – who she described as “an anonymous troll who described the majority of Scots as traitors” – was not enough.
She said: “I am sure the First Minister will rightly condemn this and note that Mr Hay has apologised, but that is not enough. Will the First Minister sack Neil Hay as the SNP’s candidate?”
Ms Dugdale continued: “In recent weeks the First Minister has had to apologise to victims of online abuse from her supporters.
“Rather than simply empathising with the victims, she needs to show some leadership and take on the perpetrators. That starts with the sacking of Neil Hay.”
Nicola Sturgeon said voters would get the opportunity to have their say on Mr Hay’s remarks when they go to the polls on May 7.
“Firstly, Kezia Dugdale is right, I do condemn the language used and I condemn the comments made, as I always do when anybody steps out of line on Twitter, Facebook or any medium,” she said.
“Neil Hay has rightly apologised. I think given that we face a General Election two weeks today, it is now up to the voters to decide.”
Ms Sturgeon said a senior Labour activist, Ian Smart, had also been abusive, describing the SNP as “fascist scum”.
She said: “I would invite Kezia Dugdale, before she comes to me lecturing me on what she expects me to do about SNP members, can I just politely suggest to her that she puts her own house in order first?”
Ms Dugdale said she took the remarks about Mr Smart “very seriously”.
“Neil Hay is on the ballot paper and I won’t take any lectures on the conduct and the behaviour of SNP activists,” she added.
General Election issues dominated the exchanges between Ms Dugdale and Ms Sturgeon as the Deputy Scottish Labour leader went on to challenge the First Minister on the SNP’s economic policy.
Analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggests the nationalists’ flagship financial policy of full fiscal autonomy could lead to a shortfall of nearly £9 billion in Scotland’s finances by 2019/20.
Ms Dugdale said: “I know the First Minister doesn’t agree with the assessment of the IFS and earlier this week described it as ‘academic’.
“So, can she confirm when the SNP will publish their own costings on full fiscal autonomy for Scotland?”
Ms Sturgeon said: “I find myself wondering two weeks out from polling day if we are ever going to get to a stage in this campaign where Labour tries to give the Scottish public a single positive reason for voting Labour.
“Is it ever going to move on from SNP bad?”
She said Scotland’s fiscal position at the point of full fiscal autonomy would “depend on a number of things”, including the country’s economic performance between now and then, and the detail of a fiscal framework that will be agreed to determine Scotland’s contributions to continued reserved responsibilities.
Mr Sturgeon added: “But do you know what, as I go around this country right now talking to voters, that’s not what they’re asking me about.
“They are asking what is going to happen now, this year, next year and the year after.
“I am able to tell them that I want real-terms spending increases in every year of the next parliament.
“What we have Labour boasting about is that they’re going to have cuts.”
She challenged Ms Dugdale to say “how many cuts and where the axe would fall”.
Ms Dugdale countered that the SNP’s plans for full fiscal autonomy would mean”massive austerity” while its policy for UK-wide spending would “mean thesame”.
Further analysis of the main parties’ manifestos by the IFS found that the SNP’s figures imply the same reduction in borrowing as Labour, although the reduction would be slower.
This means the party is proposing a slower but longer period of austerity, the think-tank said.
The report added on the SNP: “Their stated plans do not necessarily match their anti-austerity rhetoric.”
Ms Dugdale said: “This morning, impartial experts at the IFS said that the SNP would impose austerity for longer than any other party and that under the SNP the block grant for Scotland will be cut.
“So can the First Minister tell us, why does she want to keep austerity going?”
Ms Sturgeon said: “I have said repeatedly, I do want to take longer to eliminate the deficit than the other parties.
“Because I want to see us have the ability to invest more in our economy, in our public services and in lifting people out of poverty.”
She added: “That is the clear difference between my party and the other parties represented in this chamber.”
She dismissed the latest IFS report as “full of assumptions and speculations” which “get the SNP’s plans wrong”.
“It doesn’t credit for any increases in revenue for the tax rises that we are proposing, secondly it gives no credit for the revenue we would increase from cracking down on tax avoidance … but the fundamental misassumption at the heart of the IFS report this morning is this one: it assumes that the SNP would cut borrowing by 2019/20 to 1.4% of GDP,” the First Minister said.
“That is not our plan, our plan is for borrowing in that year to be 1.6% of GDP.”