Independence campaign and gender recognition laws will be at top of successor’s in-tray
Photograph: Jane Barlow/AFP/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Jane Barlow/AFP/Getty Imagesas the Scottish National party leader and Scotland’s first minister, signalling the end of a political era and triggering the SNP’s first leadership election campaign in nearly 20 years. After serving as Alex Salmond’s understudy and deputy from 2004, during which time she was the SNP’s leader at Holyrood, she was crowned party leader in 2014 without a contest.
The next Holyrood election – a vote that is of singular significance for the SNP, given it is for Scotland’s national parliament – is more than three years away. Despite her own doubts about her resilience, her government – shared with the pro-independence Scottish Greens – was stable and commanded an unassailable majority.
It is highly significant that Sturgeon directly linked her decision to step down to next month’s SNP conference on independence, in Edinburgh on Sunday 19 March.
Although Sturgeon’s popularity had waned recently, she remained Scotland’s most popular leader, defined by her largely skilled, empathic handling of the Covid-19 crisis. She also came to embody the independence cause; in 2014 Salmond made her the face of the yes campaign, sensing that her youth and outlook resonated with yes voters.
The most pressing question is how a change of leadership affects the Scottish government’s plans to contest the UK’s decision to block the bill – which it did using section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998, described by sources as “the nuclear option”. Scottish ministers have three months from the date the section 35 order was laid – 16 January – to contest it.
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