Did Nicola Sturgeon call Liz Truss a 'marzipan dildo?

Fake comments attributed to former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, one of which was taken from the political sitcom 'The Thick of It' have gone viral on social media.

An account on X/Twitter called @politicoforyou tweeted on Thursday afternoon: "Nicola Sturgeon urged to apologise after leaked WhatsApp messages describing Matt Hancock as “Weaker than a nuns p**s,” Liz Truss as “About as much use as a marzipan dildo,” and referring to Suella Braverman as “Shitler.”

As you might have already guessed these comments aren't real and are just a very clever piece of satire playing off a real news story about Sturgeon calling former prime minister Boris Johnson a “f****** clown” and “f****** excruciating” in WhatsApp message sent during the Covid pandemic.

WhatsApp messages between the former Scottish first minister and her then chief of staff Liz Lloyd also show Ms Sturgeon saying the Scottish Government did “not get nearly enough credit for how much better than them we are”.

The phrase 'marzipan dildo actually comes from The Thick of It, with creator Armando Iannucci chiming in to credit the insult to writer Ian Martin.

Elsewhere, comedian Jason Manford said: "So rare to agree wholeheartedly with every word a politician said."

Carol Vorderman, who recognised the post as a joke, asked: "I haven't heard of a #MarzipanDildo before, have you?"

While journalist John Sweeney, labelled the post: "v amusing."

In regards to the real messages, Lloyd was asked during the inquiry if Ms Sturgeon had communicated with her using a personal mobile phone, Ms Lloyd said “I believe so”, before adding she was “not aware of the sort of details of what phone she had and who provided it”.

Speaking about the former first minister, she said: “Her phone would be a matter for her private office, not for me.”

With the inquiry having been shown a document from the Scottish cabinet dating from July 2020 stating that consideration should be given to “restarting work on independence”, Ms Lloyd rejected suggestions from chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett that it “does look a bit like the politicisation of the coronavirus pandemic”.

Ms Lloyd insisted: “My understanding is that we were not doing that (focusing on independence) at that time.

“It says consideration was given to this but was not done at this time.”

Additional reporting by PA.

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