A nurse from Scotland has come under sustained abuse on social media after she criticised Nicola Sturgeon from the audience of the first Scottish leaders’ debate of the general election.
Claire Austin, a nurse for NHS Lothian, strongly criticised the first minister on Sunday night saying she has been forced to feed her family with the help of a food bank due to the low wages given to NHS staff by the Scottish government.
Immediately after the debate in the media “spin room”, SNP MP Joanna Cherry spread a false rumour to journalists that Austin was the wife of a Tory councillor. The MP, who is also a lawyer, has since tweeted Austin to apologise.
However, Austin has since received hundreds of tweets from SNP supporters who have screengrabbed pictures of her drinking sparkling wine, holidaying in New York, and have claimed she lied about having to use a food bank.
The Scottish Sun has published an article about Austin’s “swanky” lifestyle claiming the nurse posted photos of herself eating at “the posh Malmaison hotel in February [and] drank expensive champagne at a birthday party”.
Viewers also noticed that Austin was in the audience for a Question Time production two weeks ago and have put that forward as evidence that she is an anti-SNP “plant” from the BBC.
Austin has been forced to defend herself on Twitter after the wave of abuse saying it is false to claim she earns £30,000, that some of the holidays posted were paid for by friends, and that she is not married.
Austin also explained why she has appeared both on the debate and a Question Time show a few weeks ago.
The treatment of Austin following the debate has drawn criticism from figures inside the SNP, including from the Scottish government’s health minister, Shona Robison, and SNP MP for Glasgow South Stewart McDonald.
BuzzFeed News has contacted Austin for comment.
