Nicola Sturgeon resignation as it happened: Nicola Sturgeon resigns as first minister - RECAP
Ms Sturgeon will leave office as the longest serving and first female First Minister since the creation of the Scottish Parliament, a time which saw her lead the SNP to repeated election victories at UK, Scottish and local level.
In a shock announcement on Wednesday, the SNP leader said she believes the “time is now” to stand aside but denied reacting to “short-term pressures” after a series of political setbacks.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“Since my very first moments in the job I have believed a part of serving well would be to know almost instinctively when the time is right to make way for someone else,” she said from her residence at Bute House in Edinburgh.
“In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it’s right for me, for my party and my country.”
The succession and timeline of the resignation as well as the successor of the first minister has not yet been made clear, however we will bring you live updates throughout the day in our live blog.
Nicola Sturgeon resigns as Scotland’s first minister - RECAP
“Giving absolutely everything of yourself to do this job is the only way to do it. “ says Nicola Sturgeon as she touches on her long career in Scottish politics and leading the country through the Covid pandemic.
The First Minister says that she has every confidence that the SNP will win the next election and that support for independence must be solidified.
She says that she is certain there is a majority of support for Scottish independence
Nicola Sturgeon says that “winning independence is the cause she has dedicated a lifetime to” and adds that she intends to be there when it is won.
She says that she is stepping down from leadership but not leaving politics.
Nicola Sturgeon said she no longer felt she could give the job of First Minister everything it deserves, and said she felt she had a duty to say so now.
Speaking in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon said leading Scotland through the pandemic is “by far the toughest thing I’ve done”, adding the weight of responsibility was “immense”.
“It’s only very recently I think that I’ve started to comprehend, let alone process, the physical and mental impact of it on me.”
She went on: “If the only question was ‘can I battle on for another few months?’, then the answer is yes, of course I can.
“But if the question is, ‘can I give this job everything it demands and deserves for another year, let alone for the remainder of this parliamentary term – give it every ounce of energy that it needs in the way that I have strived to do every day for the past eight years?’ – the answer honestly is different.
“And as that is my decision, hard though it has been for me to reach it, then given the nature and scale of the challenges the country faces, I have a duty to say so now.”
Nicola Sturgeon has discussed the polarising discourse experienced by staying in the job too long.
She said: “I feel more and more each day now that the fixed opinions people increasingly have about me, some fair and others a little more than caricature, are being used as barriers to reason debate in our country.
“Statements and decisions that should not be controversial at all quickly become so. Issues that are controversial end up almost irrationally so.
“Too often I see issues presented as a result viewed, not on their own merits but through the prism of what I think and what people think of me.
“I’ve always been of the belief that no one individual should be dominant in any system for too long.”
She added: “If all parties were to take the opportunity to depolarise public debate just a bit, to focus more on issues that on personalities, and to reset the tone and the tenor of our discourse, then this decision, right for me, and I believe my party and the country, may also prove good for politics.”
Ian Blackford, Scottish MP and former leader of the SNP in Westminster, has said Nicola Sturgeon is the “finest First Minster Scotland has ever had”.
“Nicola Sturgeon is the finest First Minster Scotland has ever had, and the finest friend anyone could hope for,” he tweeted.
“When Scotland wins independence, she will have been its architect and builder. She has laid the foundations we all now stand on.
“We owe it to her to finish the job.”
Alister Jack has paid tributes to Nicola Sturgeon’s time in government saying: “Nicola Sturgeon has been a formidable politician and I thank her for her service as First Minister for eight years. I particularly appreciate the work that she undertook to help us deliver two new Freeports in Scotland, bringing thousands of jobs and millions of pounds of investment.
“A new First Minister will have a real chance to re-focus the Scottish Government on what they were elected to do - improve public services such as health and education that people rely on and that are vital to Scotland’s future success.
“Her resignation presents a welcome opportunity for the Scottish Government to change course, and to drop its divisive obsession with independence.
“I want to see a Scottish Government that works hand in hand with the UK Government to realise our full potential as a country.”
Scottish Health and Social Care Secretary Humza Yousaf, a potential candidate to replace Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader, has said he is “gutted” to see her standing down.
“Gutted (Ms Sturgeon) is standing down, but I know hard she has reflected on this decision,” he tweeted.
“I have had enormous pleasure of being in her Govt for the time she has been (First Minister), and I can safely say she has always put interests of the Country first, and governed for all of Scotland.
“She is right, politics can be brutal, it impacts on our relationships, our families and of course on our own physical and mental health.
“I hope the FM gets to experience some kind of normality upon standing down, she certainly deserves it.
“From leading our response to the pandemic to leading the independence movement to new heights, and many achievements in-between, (Ms Sturgeon) should be very proud of what she has achieved as First Minister. I am proud to call her my friend. #ThankYouNicola”
Taking a quick break from Nicola Sturgeon - Sir Keir Starmer has for the first time unequivocally barred his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate at the next general election as he invited his critics to leave the party.