'Privilege of my life': Nicola Sturgeon says 'nothing will come close' to being First Minister after shock resignation
15 February 2023, 09:58 | Updated: 15 February 2023, 16:58
Nicola Sturgeon has said serving as First Minister of Scotland has been the "privilege of my life" after she announced her shock resignation today.
She announced her shock resignation at a hastily-arranged press conference in Edinburgh at 11am on Wednesday, saying in her "head and in my heart" she knows the time is right to step down.
Ms Sturgeon did not mention the recent trans row that has engulfed her final days as First Minister, instead saying that she believed "part of serving well is almost instinctively when the time is right to make way for someone else" and "having the courage to do so" when that time arrives.
"In my head and in my heart I know that time is now," she told the press conference, confirming she will stay in post until a successor is elected by her party. Ms Sturgeon will also step down as SNP leader. "I'm not expecting violins here. But I am a human being as well as a politician," she added.
Nicola Sturgeon resignation: What happened and what next
And speaking at Bute House, Ms Sturgeon said: "This decision is not a reaction to short term pressures," she insisted, admitting it could "easily look like that."
She added: "I have been wrestling with it... for some weeks. Essentially, I've been trying to answer two questions - is carrying on right for me and more importantly is me carrying on right for me, my party and the independence cause i have devoted my life to?"
Nicola Sturgeon’s historic career as First Minister
Ms Sturgeon described the job as "a privilege beyond measure, one that has sustained and inspired me in good times and through the toughest hours of my toughest days".
But she said one is constantly on duty as First Minister and regretted she has not been able to do normal things as easily.
She had been gearing up to a general election campaign that she wanted to frame as a de facto second independence referendum, but said a successor would be without the polarised opinions people have of her.
She said she believes independence will be achieved.
Keith Brown, the deputy leader of the SNP, said: "An outstanding leader. The first female and longest serving First Minister.
"Nicola Sturgeon has given her working life to the cause of independence. Thank you for all you have done, and will do in our campaign to win independence for Scotland."
Ms Sturgeon has been first minister since she took over from Alex Salmond in November 2014, after he left the role in the wake of the failed Scottish independence referendum.
Most recently, she had been embroiled in huge controversy over her attempts to reform gender recognition laws, which led to concerns that sex offenders could use the simplified rules to switch their officially recognised gender.
Within days of the law passing - and being blocked at Westminster - convicted double rapist Isla Bryson, a trans woman who still has male genitalia, was housed in a women's prison. That was reversed after an enormous outcry.
Ms Sturgeon stuck to her guns on the reforms but she was criticised by nationalists for harming the independence movement, with support for detaching from the UK falling. Mr Salmond had attacked her for getting embroiled in "some daft ideology imported from elsewhere".
Mr Salmond - who left the SNP and formed the rival nationalist group the Alba party - said: "To get to a position where you say to a majority of our people that you cannot have single-sex spaces – prized and worked and strived for – because of some daft ideology imported from elsewhere and, as we’ve seen, imperfectly understood by its proponents in Scotland, borders on the totally absurd.
"And the six per cent decline in independence vote over a month – think about that.
"Thirty years of gradually building, building, building until we get independence over 50%, and then thrown away with some self-indulgent nonsense, which even if it was right, which it isn't, would hardly be tactically the most astute manoeuvre when we're meant to be taking Scotland to its next date with destiny."
