The Sun newspaper’s decision to back the SNP in Scotland while supporting the Tories in the rest of the UK has prompted accusations that it is little more than an opportunistic anti-Labour strategy.
The Scottish edition on Thursday portrayed the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, as Princess Leia from Star Wars, describing her under the headline “Stur Wars” as the “new hope”. It added: “May the 7th be with you: why it’s time to vote SNP.”
In contrast, its main London edition pictured David Cameron as a babe in arms, with the declaration: “It’s a Tory.” Urging readers to vote Tory to “keep [the] UK economy on track”, “stop the SNP running the country” and guarantee an election on EU membership, it warned of “SNP wreckers”.
The Sun’s main rival in Scotland, the Daily Record, accused the paper of a “two-faced response” on Twitter, adding in another sceptical tweet: “Downmarket tabloid the Sun endorsing the SNP in Scotland, but backing Tories in England to ‘stop SNP running the country’. Nope, us neither.”
— Record Politics (@Record_Politics) April 29, 2015Two-faced Sun backs Sturgeon in Scotland even while English edition warns of 'SNP wreckers' http://t.co/BUS0FlnlB8 pic.twitter.com/gHQBS8O7tw
— Record Politics (@Record_Politics) April 29, 2015Downmarket tabloid the Sun endorsing the SNP in Scotland, but backing Tories in England to 'stop SNP running the country.' Nope, us neither
Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, Kezia Dugdale, tweeted both front pages side by side, adding: “2 papers, 1 objective.”
— Kezia Dugdale (@kdugdalemsp) April 29, 20152 papers, 1 objective pic.twitter.com/VIy0c0yaYC
Under its Scottish editor, David Dinsmore, a journalist who fostered very close ties between News UK and then SNP leader Alex Salmond before taking over as UK editor, the Sun’s two editions have consistently taken contradictory stances on the SNP and Sturgeon during the election campaign.
The English edition has run often sexist, mocking coverage of Sturgeon, openly backing the Tories’ attacks on a putative deal between Labour and the SNP, and heavily criticising the SNP’s policies.
One photomontage of Sturgeon posing as scantily clad pop star Miley Cyrus swinging on a wrecking ball has become notorious among SNP voters under the headline “Tartan Barmy”. In Scotland, however, the Sun has swung heavily behind the SNP and Sturgeon.
Andrew Nicoll, political editor of the Scottish Sun, told Scotland 2015 on BBC Scotland that the split was entirely consistent with the fact that both editions were “distinct, editorially-diverse newspapers”.
He said: “We are a Scottish newspaper, run in Scotland, printed in Scotland, produced in Scotland by Scots, and it’s not a surprise to anybody – least of all Rupert Murdoch – that these two papers have a diversion of view tonight.”
Nicoll denied it was driven by cynicism or a deliberate anti-Labour strategy. “In the time that I’ve worked at the Sun we’ve supported the Labour party, the SNP, the Tories. We’ve fought vigorously against the SNP, we’ve supported the SNP.
“Sometimes that support has gone the way the vote has gone, sometimes it hasn’t. The people of Scotland seem to have chosen the SNP, and we’re going with them.”
The Scottish edition’s stance reflects a very consistent recent stance in support of the SNP and, until the final week of the referendum, very favourable coverage of Alex Salmond and his pro-independence campaign.
It emerged during the Leveson inquiry into hacking that Salmond had heavily courted Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp boss, and his executives, after the Scottish Sun had published a hostile, anti-SNP front cover with a noose on it on the eve of the 2007 Holyrood elections.
After Salmond’s landslide victory in 2011 – backed by the Sun, Murdoch published favourable tweets describing Salmond as “clearly the most brilliant politician in the UK. Gave Cameron the back of his hand this week. Loved by Scots.”
Speculation that the Sun could back a yes vote during the independence referendum, driven largely because it was believed Cameron’s Tories had fallen out of favour with Murdoch, only ended after Murdoch visited Scotland in the final week of the campaign.
After teasing Cameron on Twitter about the scale of Yes Scotland’s support, Murdoch took fright after deciding the yes campaign was too left of centre and linked to the Green and socialist parties.
He took his editors’ advice by taking a neutral stance on the referendum, and tweeted instead that further powers for Scotland within the UK was the better option: “With all-party promises of max devolution, if kept, Britain will be a different place, certainly better managed. Tough negotiations ahead,” he wrote.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) September 14, 2014With all- party promises of max devolution, if kept, Britain will be a different place, certainly better managed. Tough negotiations ahead.
Until Gordon Brown’s premiership, the Sun had supported Tony Blair’s new Labour governments – a policy reflected in the Sun’s 2007 anti-SNP headline.