A SENIOR SNP councillor who promoted a blog accused of anti-Semitism made “a significant error of judgment” out of ignorance, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister said Frank Anderson, the leader of the SNP group in West Lothian, had now written an “unreserved apology” to a female Jewish Labour activist singled out for criticism.

“That error of judgment arose out of a lack of understanding and knowledge,” she said.

Ms Sturgeon was asked at FMQs what action the SNP was taking against Mr Anderson and another councillor, Carl John, who shared a blog that cited Hitler to attack the woman.

Gareth Wardell, who runs the Grouse Beater website, has been suspended by the SNP are publishing an article on Monday about GMB Scotland organiser Rhea Wolfson.

He said Ms Wolfson had been "making the most" of Hitler’s fascist ideology in the equal pay dispute in SNP-run Glasgow, which led to 8000 women going on strike last week.

In a section titled “Hitler’s view”, the blog said: “In Part 1 of Mein Kampf, Hitler attacks unions over and over again. Unions are fascism’s Public Enemy Number 1. He went further.

“He accused ‘The Jew’ of gradually assuming leadership of the trade union movement. Hitler wanted a blindly obedient fighting force loyal only to the national leader of government.

“Whether or not Wolfson is intellectually aware of Hitler’s outlook is unknown but she certainly knows how to make the most of it.”

Labour described the blog as “vile anti-Semitism”, a charge the author denies.

Mr Wardell now faces an investigation by the SNP’s disciplinary committee.

However Mr Anderson and Mr John, who are councillors in Livingston, where Ms Wolfson is Labour’s Westminster candidate, have not been suspended for promoting the article.

After Ms Sturgeon, who this week visited the former Auschwitz concentration camp, spoke of the importance of tackling anti-Semitism, Labour MSP Neil Findlay raised Ms Wolfson.

He said: “This week the acting leader of West Lothian’s SNP councillors and one of his colleagues shared and then defended sharing an article attacking a young, female Jewish trade union leader for her work representing low paid workers.

“The article cited Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf. The author of the article was rightly suspended by the First Minister’s party.

“Will the First Minister now take further action and suspend both elected councillors and others who spread such offensive, hateful material and attack and abuse people for simply doing their job?”

Ms Sturgeon said it was a “legitimate” question that she wanted to respond to seriously.

She said Mr Anderson had on Thursday written to Ms Wolfson “with an unreserved apology, fully recognising that he made a significant error of judgment”.

She said: “That error of judgment arose out of a lack of understanding and knowledge.”

She went on: “Where people do get things wrong through lack of understanding or knowledge, it is sometimes important that we give them a chance to learn, because education and learning is an important part of combating anti-Semitism and intolerance and racism of all forms.

“The SNP is responsible for the decisions that we take on those matters and is answerable for those decisions. We have consulted the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, and we have done so this week in relation to the appropriate response to the situation.

“It is equally important that we do not rush to weaponise these things against each other for petty party-political reasons. We are all guilty of that sometimes.

“Fundamentally, it is really important that we stand united in saying that antisemitism, racism, bigotry and intolerance in any form are completely unacceptable.

“However, ultimately, on these issues there is a lot more that unites all of us than divides us.”