THE journalist who interviewed Nicola Sturgeon for Vogue magazine has described a four-minute BBC segment on how her piece came to be as "very absurd".
Marie Le Conte spoke to the First Minister in a wide-ranging interview where Sturgeon spoke about her home life and how she has considered fostering a child with her husband once she leaves politics.
She also spoke about her relationships with senior UK Government figures, saying that she had not seen much of Boris Johnson recently and he is not particularly involved in devolved governments.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon considering fostering children after leaving Scottish politics
The interview generated a lot of attention and led to BBC Scotland's The Seven speaking with a political communications expert about it.
Kevin Craig, who has advised the likes of Theresa May and Gordon Brown, was asked what the First Minister "gets out of this" interview.
Craig praised Sturgeon's political savvy saying "she knows what she's doing" with the interview that was very personal but also talked about her previous political opponents such as Kezia Dugdale and Ruth Davidson, and her relationship with Alex Salmond.
He said that an interview like this is "very risky" but an established politician like Sturgeon "can handle it" and it is a good way to increase awareness and support for a second independence referendum.
Host Laura Miller suggested that the interview was "choreographed" and asked how these things come about.
Sturgeon was featured in a list of Vogue's top 25 most inspirational women earlier this year and Craig suggested it makes sense for them to profile her.
He suggested the First Minister's team would have been approached by Vogue for the interview and there would be a discussion about possible "no go areas" before it takes place.
Le Conte said it was "very absurd" to see such a long segment about how her interview came about but confirmed that she was "happy to say that I was not told by anyone beforehand about what I could or could not ask the FM".
very absurd to see the BBC running quite a lengthy segment on how the interview I did came about (!) but happy to say that I was not told by anyone beforehand about what I could or could not ask the FM https://t.co/OQqRYg4kSD
— Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) October 29, 2021
Having prepared many politicians for these types of interviews, Craig said it did seem that the interview took place with "almost no demands" from Sturgeon's team due to its wide-ranging nature.
In the interview, Sturgeon spoke about her home life and was candid about the miscarriage she had a decade ago. After that, she said she had become “really involved in and passionate about improving the opportunities for young people who grew up in care”.
She also suggested that the reason Boris Johnson delegates work with Scotland to Michael Gove could be down to “bit of a fragile male ego” as she said it was "odd" that he was not inclined to be in the same room as her.
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