FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s office has denied she has signed up with an international speakers’ agency, after a rash of claims on social media.
Website speakerbookingagency.com listed the FM as being available for personal and virtual appearances for an unspecified sum.
Their homepage touts Will Smith and broadcaster Anderson Cooper as celebrities available to book.
However, a source close to the First Minister said the listing was “fake”.
The accompanying biography for the FM appears to have been ripped from Wikipedia.
"Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon is the current First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in office since November 2014," it reads.
The page does not state the "fee range" for the FM, but adds she is available to travel from Glasgow.
Despite the red flags, Sturgeon’s listing was highlighted on social media by the ScotNatWatch account on Twitter, and subsequently retweeted by many others as the webpage spread.
Some suggested she was receiving extra income that did not appear on her recently released tax returns.
We previously told how the FM published the previous six years worth of tax documentation with a challenge to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The papers showed the FM had only one source of income - from her role as MSP and head of the Scottish Government.
However, a source close to the FM told the Herald: “Yes it’s fake - this is the first I’ve seen of it.”
The Speaker Booking Agency, which claims to have been “America’s leading Speakers Bureau since 1999" on its website, currently has 35 followers on Twitter.
The firm has been asked for comment.
Sturgeon lists no speaking agency in her Holyrood register of interests.
