Scotland: Ian Murray tells SNP to ‘be straight with people’

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Guido Fawkes reporter Christian Calgie was shocked when his Twitter account was blocked by Scotland’s First Minister. Mr Calgie tweeted: “No way! The First Minister of Scotland has genuinely blocked me on Twitter.

“I was blocked for sharing an attack and I didn’t tag her in, meaning someone on her team is actively combing through Twitter.”

A follower of Mr Calgie, Scottish Conservative MSP Jamie Greene, then replied with a tweet saying: “Blocking journalists is neither a sign of a healthy democracy nor a First Minister who is confident of her own record in government.”

Another follower tweeted: “Blocking journalists!

“Healthy democracy; I don’t think so!

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“What are opposition politicians doing about this?”

However, one follower of Mr Calgie, said: “Oh right.

“Journalists in Downing Street walk out after Johnson aide tries to exclude some reporters.”

The “walk out” is referring to an incident Monday 3 February when political journalists boycotted a Downing Street briefing after one of the Prime Minister’s aides banned selected reporters from attending.

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The boycott happened after Lee Cain, Johnson’s most senior communications adviser, tried to exclude reporters from the Mirror, the i, HuffPost, PoliticsHome, the Independent and others from an official government briefing.

This led the Labour Party to accuse Mr Johnson of employing Donald Trump-like tactics to avoid control press relations.

The Labour said Mr Johnson was “resorting to tactics imported from Donald Trump to hide from scrutiny”.

Labour shadow digital, culture, media, and sport secretary, Tracy Brabin, said: “Press freedom is a cornerstone of our democracy.

“Journalists must be able to hold the government to account.

“The future trade agreement with the European Union is an issue of great public importance and interest.

“Those gaining access to such important information should not be cherry-picked by No 10.”

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