Liz Truss has lashed out at Nicola Sturgeon as she continues to close in on Number 10.

The Conservative leadership hopeful dismissed Scotland’s first minister as an ‘attention seeker’ during a hustings in Exeter.

With the campaign for a second independence referendum gearing up, the frontrunner in the race to succeed Boris Johnson said her strategy would be to ‘ignore’ the SNP leader.

The incendiary comments come on the same day as her campaign received two major endorsements – the first from Penny Mordaunt, the minister she narrowly beat in the vote among MPs, and the second from the Telegraph newspaper.

Speaking in front of an audience of Tory members, Ms Truss ruled out consenting to a second referendum.

She said: ‘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.’

Tory members cheered and applauded the comment, with the Foreign Secretary adding: ‘She’s an attention seeker, that’s what she is.

‘What we need to do is show the people of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales what we’re delivering for them and making sure that all of our government policies apply right across the United Kingdom.’

She replied ‘no, no, no’ when asked about another independence referendum in Scotland if she becomes prime minister.

Speaking to BBC Scotland’s The Nine, deputy first minister John Swinney branded the comments as ‘completely and utterly unacceptable’.

He said: ‘People in Scotland, whatever their politics, will be absolutely horrified by the obnoxious remarks that Liz Truss has made tonight.’

Mr Swinney continued: ‘I think Liz Truss has fundamentally with one, silly, intemperate intervention, fundamentally undermined the argument she tries to put forward: that Scotland, somehow, can be fairly and well treated at the heart of the United Kingdom.’

The SNP government in Scotland is pushing ahead with a plan to hold a second independence referendum in October 2023.

They set up a Supreme Court showdown with the British government on the question of whether the Scottish government can unilaterally hold a referendum without prior consent from London within the law.

If the bid fails, the SNP will contest the next general election purely on the issue of whether or not Scotland should be an independent country, Ms Sturgeon announced in June.

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