Ruth Davidson: Scottish Conservative Leader mocks 'crass' Sunday Times story branding her a 'childless politician'

'I'll just get myself down Mothercare and stare mournfully at the cribs'

Ruth Davidson (PA)

Ruth Davidson has mocked a newspaper’s decision to categorise her and other successful female politicians as “childless”.

The Scottish Conservative Leader was responding to an article in the Sunday Times about Nicola Sturgeon's experience of miscarriage. The piece has been sharply criticised for including a side bar about “childless politicians” and for introducing Ms Sturgeon in the piece as “the childless 46-year-old SNP leader”.

Women on the "childless politicians" list included British Prime Minister Theresa May, Labour MP Angela Eagle and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

There were no men featured in the sidebar panel.

Women 50:50, a campaign launched by Kezia Dugdale, Lothians MSP for Scottish Labour, and Alison Johnstone, Lothians MSP for the Scottish Green Party, which calls for equal representation of women in Parliament, responded by tweeting a panel of male politicians who also do not have children. This was re-shared by Davidson, who added: "Oh, I do SO enjoy when I'm categorised as a 'childless politician'."

Ms Davidson also joked about the panel in a playful exchange with Labour MP Stella Creasy, saying she was off to Mothercare to “stare mournfully at the cribs”.

Talat Yaqoob, the founder of Women 50:50, told the Independent: “Nicola Sturgeon was telling her story of miscarriage and in her own words hoping to erase the taboo associated with being public about it. To then add a picture of 'childless politicians' was crass and utterly distasteful, if anything, the picture added to the taboo - these politicians were not included in the article, no context of their lives were given, they were judged on the whether they were parents and it is shameful.

"Women leaders' personal lives are constantly under the spotlight - if they have children, their ability to have a career and be a good parent is questioned. If they don't have children, they are criticised for putting their career first - this simply does not happen to the same extent to men. It is time this double standard and sexism was erased.“

The Sunday Times also drew anger by referring to the Scottish First Minister’s miscarriage as a “tantalising secret” on the front page of the paper, a description Ms Davidson branded “really, really off” and “terrible”.

Responding to the criticism, a spokesperson for the Sunday Times said: “We felt our piece highlighted sympathetically the treatment of women politicians and the subject of miscarriage but on reflection we could have presented the sidebar more sensitively.”

The article comes a year after a New Statesman cover depicting Ms Sturgeon and three other female politicians around a crib containing a ballot -box underneath the headline: “The motherhood trap – why are so many successful women childless?”

The cover and accompanying piece were dismissed as “cringe-worthy” by Ms Sturgeon, while Ms Davidson responded with a more direct, “Oh, do sod right off.”