Nicola Sturgeon: From SNP election-winner and Covid burnout to 'Books and Banter'

Whatever you think of her, Nicola Sturgeon has put in a shift.

She’s been an MSP since 1999, in Government from 2007 to 2023, the longest-serving First Minister of Scotland and the only woman to hold the job.

Sturgeon started young, joining the SNP as a teenager. She was still in her twenties when she was first elected to the Scottish Parliament.

By the time the SNP won a shock election victory in 2007 – propelling her to Deputy First Minister – she was only in her thirties.

In her 40s, she became first minister after Alex Salmond stepped down following the 2014 independence Referendum.

Scotland

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon will not seek re-election next year

The ex-SNP leader announced on Wednesday morning that she will stand down run from Scottish Parliament in 2026.

Now, in her early fifties, she has announced that she is stepping down from elected politics.

I don’t imagine for a minute that means she is going away.

For a start, she has a book out in August, so you can expect to see a lot more of her promoting it at book festivals and in media interviews; she may even turn up on the odd chat show.

Later this month, she will take to the stage of the King’s Theatre in Glasgow with her friend, the author Val McDermid, to host an evening of “chat and laughs” titled Books and Banter.

In March, Nicola Sturgeon will take to the stage of the King's Theatre in Glasgow with her friend, the author Val McDermid, to host an evening of 'chat and laughs' titled Books and Banter. — In March, Nicola Sturgeon will take to the stage of the King’s Theatre in Glasgow with her friend, the author Val McDermid, to host an evening of ‘chat and laughs’ titled Books and Banter. GICF

Over the years, Sturgeon has been at the heart of an election-winning machine – first as Alex Salmond’s deputy, winning the only Scottish Parliament majority in 2011, then coming pretty close under own leadership in 2016 and 2021.

She has been the longest-serving First Minister and arguably had the hardest shift with the Covid pandemic.

That burnt her out and moved her out of Bute House in 2023.

Then it was a bit of a shock but not really a surprise. Those close to her said she had been thinking about going for a while.

By then, she had long since spectacularly fallen out with her mentor, Alex Salmond.

She has run out of road in her quest for independence.

She’d been through a bitter battle on gender reforms and was about to be embroiled in Operation Branchform, the Police Scotland inquiry into SNP finances, which saw her arrested, questioned and released without charge.

Sturgeon has become a bit more of a divisive figure of late.

There are many who still love and revere her, others who feel let down over the SNP’s failure to achieve independence, or annoyed by her continued campaigning for it, or over the gender debate.

What she feels about all of that and the rest of her political career, we will probably have to wait for her book to find out.