Nicola Sturgeon Siblings: Meet Gillian Sturgeon

Everything you need to know about Nicola Sturgeon Siblings: Meet Gillian Sturgeon, including in-depth facts.

Sturgeon is a Scottish politician who has been the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) leader and First Minister of Scotland since 2014. She holds both positions for the first time as a woman.

Since 1999, she has served in the Scottish Parliament (MSP), initially as an additional representative for the Glasgow electoral region and, starting in 2007, as the representative for Glasgow Southside (formerly Glasgow Govan).

She held the positions of shadow minister for law, health, and education for the SNP in turn. Sturgeon declared in 2004 that she would run for the SNP leadership. However, she eventually dropped out of the race in favor of Alex Salmond, running instead as Salmond’s joint candidate for deputy leader.

Both were subsequently elected, and from 2004 to 2007, Sturgeon served as the SNP’s Leader of the Opposition in the Scottish Parliament while Salmond was still an MP in the British House of Commons.

In the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections, the SNP garnered the most seats, and Salmond was therefore appointed first minister. He appointed Sturgeon to be the cabinet secretary for health and wellbeing and the deputy first minister.

She abolished prescription fees while serving as Health Secretary, and she won praise for how she managed the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Following the SNP’s resounding victory in 2011, Salmond named her Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Capital Investment, and Cities.

Salmond resigned after the Yes Scotland campaign lost the referendum, and Sturgeon was chosen as the SNP’s leader and first minister in November 2014 without any opposition.

The SNP was led by Sturgeon throughout the 2015 general election, which saw a spike in popularity for the party. The SNP won 56 out of 59 Scottish seats, overtaking the Liberal Democrats to become the third-largest party in the British House of Commons.

The SNP was re-elected as the single largest party in the Scottish Parliament in the 2016 election, however it fell two seats shy of a majority. As first minister, Sturgeon successfully ran for a second term and formed an SNP minority administration.

During her second term, she oversaw the creation of Social Security Scotland and increased taxing authority, as well as the Scottish National Investment Bank.

Sturgeon oversaw the implementation of a number of social gathering bans and the rollout of the immunization program as part of the Scottish Government’s reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak in Scotland.

In the 2021 election for the Scottish Parliament, the SNP won 64 seats, gaining one seat, but falling one seat shy of a majority. The Scottish Greens and Sturgeon’s administration later agreed on a power-sharing arrangement.

Sturgeon surpassed her predecessor’s previous record for the longest-serving First Minister of Scotland on May 25, 2022.

Sturgeon has advocated for Scottish independence in political campaigns. Scotland voted by 62% to stay in the European Union in the 2016 UK referendum on membership, despite the UK as a whole voting 52% in favor of Brexit.

The Sturgeon government has consistently argued for a second independence referendum both before and after the vote to exit the EU.

Theresa May and Boris Johnson have both rejected her pleas for a Section 30 injunction, while Liz Truss has said she will “ignore” any further demands from Sturgeon.

Sturgeon began her government’s push for a second referendum in June 2022. If approved by the UK Supreme Court, the vote would take place on October 19, 2023.

The Scottish government cannot organize an independence referendum without the UK government’s approval, the UK Supreme Court declared on November 23, 2022. On February 15, 2023, Sturgeon is anticipated to make her resignation public.