Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party. She is the fifth person to be first minister and the first woman to hold either position. Sturgeon was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and has been the member for Glasgow Southside since 2007. She has led the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland since 2020.

About Nicola Sturgeon in brief

Summary Nicola SturgeonNicola Ferguson Sturgeon is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party. She is the fifth person to be first minister and the first woman to hold either position. A law graduate of the University of Glasgow, Sturgeon worked as a solicitor in Glasgow. She first stood for election in the 1992 general election as the youngest SNP candidate in Scotland. She was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and has been the member for Glasgow Southside since 2007. She has led the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland since 2020. Sturgeon led the SNP through the 2015 general election when it enjoyed a surge in support, as it won 56 of the 59 Scottish seats and replaced the Liberal Democrats as the third-largest party in the British House of Commons. In the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, Scotland voted by 62% to remain in the European Union, despite Brexit receiving 52% of the vote across the UK. Sturgeon is the eldest of three daughters born to Joan Kerr Sturgeon, a dental nurse, and Robin Sturgeon, an electrician. Her family has some roots in North East England; her paternal grandmother was from Ryhope in what is now the City of Sunderland. In an interview with the BBC’s Woman’s Hour, Sturgeon revealed that it was Margaret Thatcher who inspired her to enter politics, because, due to rising unemployment in Scotland at the time, she developed “a strong feeling that it’s wrong for Scotland to be governed by a Tory government that we hadn’t elected” She is married to Alex Salmond, a former SNP Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.

The couple have a daughter, a son, and a daughter-in-law, both of whom are currently serving as Deputy First Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities. Sturgeon also has two step-children, a daughter and a step-son, who are both studying to be a doctor. She also has a son who is studying to become a doctor, and has a daughter who is currently studying at University of Dundee. Sturgeon has two grandchildren, a boy and a girl, who have both been born to Scottish parents. She lives in Glasgow with her husband and two children, and is a mother-of-two and a grandmother-to-be. She previously lived in Stirling, Scotland, with her mother and step-daughter, and worked in Glasgow for a solicitors’ firm, Bell & Craig, before moving to Stirling to work in Glasgow as a solicitor. In 1994, Sturgeon was selected to study in Australia for the Glasgow City Council. In 1997, Sturgeon went on a political visit to Australia with Charles Kennedy and Charles Kennedy went together on a trip to Australia. In May 1992, Sturgeon won the election for the Baillieston ward on Strathclyde Regional Council. She then stood for the Bridgeton ward in Glasgow in 1994, and in May 1994, for the ward on Mount Vernon Regional Council in May 1992. In 1999, she was elected as an additional member of the Glasgow electoral region. She served successively as the SNP’s shadow minister for education, health, and justice.