The departure of the former Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, from active politics draws a line under the Scottish National Party’s greatest generation. Her former mentor, Alex Salmond, died suddenly of a heart attack in October. Now, Sturgeon has told her supporters that “the time is right for me to embrace different opportunities and to allow you to select a new standard-bearer”.
Sturgeon, of course, relinquished her hold on the standard of government in February 2023 when she resigned suddenly and plunged her party into chaos from which it has yet to recover. When she departed Bute House, in the wake of the scandal over her flagship Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, the SNP was still leading the Scottish opinion polls, and her personal popularity remained high.
Sturgeon never succeeded in translating this electoral success into movement towards Scottish independence
Indeed, under her nine-year leadership, the SNP won landslides in successive general elections and was still by far the largest party in Holyrood and Westminster when she resigned.
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