Nicola Sturgeon

The trade deal between the UK and Australia should be subject to a vote in the House of Commons and Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon has said. Scotland’s first minister has repeatedly raised concerns over the deal, which she says will hurt Scottish farmers and food producers as cheaper imports undercut them. The agreement was announced following […]

Nicola Sturgeon has been re-elected as the first minister of Scotland by a majority of MSPs at Holyrood. The SNP leader said she wants to lead the country “to brighter and better times” and said recovery from the coronavirus pandemic was her “driving priority”. After her re-election, Sturgeon argued there was a “clear mandate” for […]

Boris Johnson’s bid to save the Union by splashing the cash won’t be enough. He will need to do a lot more than that.  The ballots cast by Scotland’s voters hadn’t been fully counted when the high-stakes game of constitutional poker between Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson began. As it became clear – to no […]

Michael Gove has refused to rule out suing Nicola Sturgeon’s government if it tries to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence, in a briefing with journalists. The cabinet minister avoided answering the question when probed twice by reporters. Asked if he would take Sturgeon to court over her proposals to hold a new vote, Gove […]

It has not even been five months since the end of the Brexit transition period and there have been armed patrol vessels in the Channel. The sad thing is: this is only the latest stage in a development that began with the Brexit referendum and saw a significant decline in Britain’s role on the diplomatic […]

A senior government minister has told the SNP it cannot expect a second referendum to be approved after failing to secure a majority in the Scottish Parliament elections. The SNP fell one seat short of an overall majority during the Super Thursday elections, securing 64 seats in Holyrood. However, the final result still means that […]

Nicola Sturgeon has said voters showed that racists and fascists are “not welcome anywhere in Scotland” after two far-right candidates picked up less than 200 votes and one was ejected from the count. Glasgow Southside independent candidate Jayda Fransen confronted the SNP leader and first minister during the campaign on Thursday, accusing her of supporting […]

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said she wants to hold a referendum on Scottish independence “when the time is right”, as she retained her Glasgow seat. Giving an acceptance speech in Glasgow after she defeated Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar by 19,735 votes to 10,279, the first minister said her party is set for a […]

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is “extremely confident” the party is heading back into power at Holyrood – although she conceded winning an overall majority of MSPs there is a “very, very long shot”. As early results started to come in from Thursday’s Scottish parliament elections, the Scottish first minister downplayed the prospect of winning a […]

Pollsters have said that “razor-thin margins” will determine whether Nicola Sturgeon wins an overall majority at Holyrood on Thursday. Research by Opinium found support for the SNP was down slightly in both the constituency and regional list section of the ballot. In the constituency vote, support for the SNP was at 51%, a drop of […]

For those dreading a return to the pitched battles of IndyRef1, the Scottish Labour leader may offer the best hope There are two schools of thought in Scotland about the conduct of the 2014 independence referendum. One is that it was a festival of democracy, a carnival of marches, song, poetry and political awakening. The […]

The “stench of sleaze” around the Conservative UK government is “becoming quite overpowering”, Nicola Sturgeon has said. The Scottish first minister called for an inquiry into allegations of “contracts for cronies, donations for decorating and text messages for tax breaks”, saying: “It is time for the Tories to put all their dealings into the public […]

Outgoing SNP MSP Alex Neil has urged his party to work with Alex Salmond’s Alba Party to achieve a “supermajority” of MSPs in Holyrood in support of independence. Neil, who served as a minister under Salmond, said in a statement on Friday that a supermajority is needed to “force Boris Johnson’s hand” on an independence […]

Nicola Sturgeon has said she has no plans to call a separate referendum on whether an independent Scotland should join the European Union. She said a “detailed prospectus” would be put to Scots ahead of any second independence referendum, and she claimed most people would want to be part of the EU again. She was […]

JAMES BALL on how the launch of the former first minister’s new party might play out at the polls. Alex Salmond and the intricacies of the Scottish voting system are not what Nicola Sturgeon wanted to be the focus in the run-up to this May’s Holyrood elections. Until just a few months ago, it felt like the […]

Alex Salmond’s Alba Party threatens to cost the SNP its majority at Holyrood due to voters choosing it instead, a new poll suggests. The Savanta ComRes poll for The Scotsman predicts the SNP will return 64 MSPs, one short of a majority, while the Alba Party will return none, but with 3% of the list […]

An SNP councillor and a senior party official have become the latest figures to defect to Alex Salmond’s new pro-independence party. Shahid Farooq, who represents a ward in North Lanarkshire, and veteran independence supporters Dot Jessiman have switched to the Alba Party. Salmond launched the Alba Party as a rival to the SNP following a […]

In both Scotland and Catalonia, the sense of inevitability that independence would soon become reality has receded as quickly as it appeared. What changed?  As Nicola Sturgeon fights for her political life in the wake of the scandal tearing her party apart, her former counterpart at the head of the Catalan independence movement, Carles Puigdemont, has his own […]

Nicola Sturgeon has said the pandemic has led to her having “much less patience for those who treat politics like a game” in a speech to SNP activists. In an online speech, she also attacked Brexit and accused the Conservatives of “muscling in” on the Scottish Parliament’s responsibilities. Her speech did not directly refer to Alba, […]

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross is seeking urgent talks with the leaders of the other pro-UK parties, calling on them to unite and work together to stop pro-independence parties winning a majority at Holyrood. Ross said the action was needed after Alex Salmond was unveiled as the leader of the new Alba Party – which […]

Flags have dominated the news agenda in recent weeks as debates about national identity rumble on. If you’ve only been casually checking into the news – and after the few years we have all had, who could blame you? – you might be forgiven for thinking that the world is suddenly quiet. What other possible reason […]

Scotland’s former first minister Alex Salmond has announced he is setting up a new political party to run in the Scottish Parliament elections in May. Salmond made the announcement during a public statement on Friday afternoon. The Alba Party is expected to field at least four candidates in each regional list at this May’s elections. It […]

Scotland’s first minister has said she would have resigned had she been found to have broken the ministerial code, but said she would not be “bullied” out of her position as she defeated an attempt to oust her. Nicola Sturgeon faced a vote of no confidence brought by the Scottish Tories, who claim she misled parliament […]

The Scottish Tories have said they will press ahead with a vote of no confidence in Nicola Sturgeon after a Holyrood committee found she misled parliament. The final report of the Committee on the Scottish government Handling of Harassment Complaints was released on Tuesday, showing a majority of MSPs on the committee felt that Sturgeon […]

First minister Nicola Sturgeon did not breach the ministerial code, an independent inquiry has concluded. The finding clears the first minister of any wrongdoing in the Salmond inquiry into sexual assault complaints. An investigation by James Hamilton found that Sturgeon did not breach the ministerial code, following allegations she failed to record meetings with Salmond and others in […]

The Scottish government has published a draft Bill for a second vote on independence. Constitution secretary Mike Russell said that while the timing of such a vote should be determined by the next Scottish parliament, ministers believe people living north of the border “have the right to decide how we recover from the pandemic and […]

The independent inquiry into whether Nicola Sturgeon breached the ministerial code is expected to be released imminently, according to reports. An investigation by James Hamilton QC has been examining whether Scotland’s first minister misled parliament. He is also examining if she should have recorded meetings with Alex Salmond and whether she prolonged the government’s defence […]

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Nicola Sturgeon of hypocrisy over her claims the Alex Salmond inquiry has been partisan in response to the leaked findings that she allegedly misled parliament. He also said that there “should be a resignation” is there is found to have been a breach. After the Holyrood inquiry into the government’s unlawful […]