A BANNER comparing Scotland’s First Minister to Adolf Hitler has sparked outrage after being put on railings close to Bute House.

The “appalling” graphic, photographed by Graham Maxwell and shared by a friend online, shows an image of Nicola Sturgeon with a drawn-on Hitler moustache and text reading: “Herr Sturgeon for Fuhrer.

“Ve vill keep Scotland in Lochdown until ze UK gives ME vot I vont!!!

“Vote for me, to kill the economy.”

The banner appears to have been put up close to the First Minister’s official Edinburgh residence after Boris Johnson made sweeping changes to lockdown in England.

From July 4, restaurants, pubs, bars and many other places which were forced to close by the coronavirus lockdown will be opened up with new safety precautions in place south of the Border.

Speaking in Holyrood yesterday, Sturgeon said these reopenings would not be going ahead in Scotland until later in July – stressing the importance of getting the level of Covid-19 infections down as far as possible.

Scottish Conservatives have complained that Scots will not be able to “benefit” from the unlocking of the economy in England soon enough, but the First Minister has been insistent that we have further to go in the fight against coronavirus.

Online, people were outraged by the banner – with Twitter users calling it “appalling” and “obscene”.

On Facebook, one person commented: "Someone went to a lot of trouble to have this piece of garbage made."

Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson condemned the banner.

She wrote: “A picture is circulating of a banner posted on railings at Charlotte Sq in my Edinburgh Central constituency.

“I won’t give it further oxygen by linking to it. I condemn it in the strongest terms.

“Come on Scotland, we can do politics better than this.”