Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, to resign. Photo courtesy of First Minister of Scotland via Flickr.
Jendayi Leben-Martin ’24
Global Editor
On Feb. 15, 2023, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon announced her resignation from the role, a New York Times article said. According to BBC News, Sturgeon is the longest-serving first minister in Scottish history, as well as the first woman to ever hold the position.
The announcement of Sturgeon’s resignation comes amid controversy in Scottish politics. The New York Times article explained that in recent weeks proposed Scottish legislation aimed at making gender transitions easier was shot down by Britain’s Parliament. However, Sturgeon maintains that the recent controversy is not the reason for her resignation, a CNN article said. Sturgeon reassured skeptics that “[the] decision is not a reaction to short-term pressures.”
As the leader of the Scottish National Party, Sturgeon has spent the past eight years working towards Scottish independence, the party’s founding goal, a BBC News article explained. In fact, according to the SNP website, Sturgeon has been advocating for Scottish independence since she was sixteen, and over the duration of her career, she has worked toward making Scotland an active participant in world politics.
In a press conference addressing her resignation, Sturgeon said that a new leader will be better equipped to achieve Scottish independence, as Sturgeon herself believes that she has become too polarizing of a figure. According to BBC News, Sturgeon’s resignation leaves Scotland without a decisive leader in ongoing discussions surrounding Scottish independence and the prospect of future referendums. As reported by CNN, a majority of Scottish voters expressed that they wanted to remain a part of the U.K. in 2014. However, after Brexit in 2016, popular Scottish opinion on independence may have changed. According to CNN, support for independence had grown since Scotland was forced out of the European Union by the U.K. in 2016, but hopes for a referendum have faced some recent obstacles.
CNN reported that in November 2022 the British Supreme Court barred the Scottish government from holding a second referendum on its own, meaning that any referendum plans must now be approved by the U.K. government. BBC News explained that the SNP is holding a conference in March to figure out how to address these restrictions and move toward a second referendum, but Philip Sim, a political correspondent for the BBC, stated that “with no clear successors waiting in the wings if Ms. Sturgeon isn’t running the independence campaign, it’s not clear who will be placed to call the shots.”
According to BBC News, Kate Forbes, a current parliament member, is one of the front runners to take over Sturgeon’s role. Some of Forbes’s ideas conflict with the political precedent that Sturgeon has set, however. For example, Forbes, who was on maternity leave during the vote that passed the self-identification legislation in the Scottish Parliament, has said that she would not have voted in favor of the bill, and that, as first minister, she will not fight the U.K. government on their block of the legislation. Nick Eardley of the BBC reports that this conflict reflects an upcoming change in the direction of the SNP. BBC News reported that Sturgeon will remain in office until her successor is elected.