On 19 September 2014, independence was rejected in the Scottish independence referendum, with 55.3% of the voters voting no and 44.7% voting yes. [309][310] This was the only occasion when he made a formal visit to Edinburgh as he declined future invites by the first minister. [70] Sturgeon was one of the white paper's most high-profile media champions and frequently debated its contents with opposition politicians and sceptical Scots. [267], Sturgeon had previously stripped Trump of his ambassadorial role for Scottish businesses with the Scottish Government in the aftermath of Trump's views of an outright ban of Muslims from entering the United States. [314][315], Sturgeon's attempts to request approval for a second referendum on Scottish independence were declined by the Johnson administration. Net Worth February 15, 2023. [76] Following the defeat of the Yes Scotland campaign, Salmond announced his resignation as First Minister and Leader of the SNP. She led the Scottish Government's response, implementing a series of restrictions on social gatherings and rolling out the vaccine programme. The 50-year-old politician created history by being the first female Minister of Scotland. [36], In the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, Sturgeon defeated Gordon Jackson QC[a] with a 4.7% swing to the SNP in the Glasgow Govan constituency. [273] In recent years, following the defeat of the Yes Scotland campaign in 2014 Scottish Independence referendum, Sturgeon has aligned herself with the new gradualist wing, who believe in only holding a second referendum if there is clear public support, such as polling being over 60%, or if there is a material change in circumstances. Nicola Sturgeon . [338], In May 2022, Sturgeon tested positive for COVID-19. "[166], In July 2020, Sturgeon advocated that the leaders of the four UK nations adopt a coordinated Zero-COVID strategy. by Anthony Horan in News. She will stay in post only until the Scottish National Party selects a new leader. [21].mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}. Nicola Sturgeon, best known for being a Politician, was born in Irvine, Scotland on Sunday, July 19, 1970. Recently, Nicola Sturgeon caught the headlines after being accused of treating the north of England with contempt. [14], Sturgeon was a quiet child and has been described by her younger sister as "the sensible one" of the two. [106], In the run-up to the elections, Sturgeon took part in several Scottish and UK-wide TV election debates and according to opinion polls was regarded to have had a successful performance. For there is plenty of evidence that people of Irish descent have been to the fore in the near-quadrupling of SNP membership to 92,000 since the referendum, which threatens to undo Labour at the 2015 UK general election. [214] This plan has been met with condemnation from various opposing parties, with the Prime Minister rejecting her plan. [333] Reflecting on her marriage in 2012, Sturgeon told the Daily Record: "Being in the same kind of line of work has its up sides and its down sides. "[69], In November 2013, Sturgeon joined Salmond to launch Scotland's Future - the Scottish Government's prospectus for independence. [] I can think of no greater privilege than to seek to lead the party I joined when I was just 16. [136][137], Several weeks later Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament that she would "reset" and delay her plans for a second independence referendum; the SNP losses in that month's election had led her to conclude that many Scots "just want a break from making big political decisions". Sturgeon oversaw the scrapping of prescription charges and was widely recognised for her handling of the 2009 swine flu pandemic. She was the Scottish National Party (SNP) Leader until her resignation on February 15 . Her second term was dominated by the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum, when the UK voted to leave the European Union, in spite of 62% of votes in Scotland backing remaining in the EU. [37][38] This was one of many swings to the SNP, as the party emerged as the largest party, winning one seat more than the governing Scottish Labour Party. By Democrat reporter A fundamentalist representative of the Catholic Church in Scotland has called out the Scottish National Party's (SNP) "open and vicious hostility" towards pro-life Christians. [279] However, in 2018 she endorsed her party's Growth Commission report that pledged to reduce an independent Scotland's budget deficit as a percentage of GDP[280] something the Institute for Fiscal Studies concluded meant "continued austerity". [34], As leader of the SNP in the Scottish Parliament, she served as the Leader of the Opposition in Holyrood. [43][44] He appointed Sturgeon as Deputy First Minister and tasked her with the Cabinet position of Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing. [253] In particular, she said she hoped to focus on closing the attainment gap between the richest and poorest children in Scottish schools, telling journalists: "Let me be clear I want to be judged on this. When the British Government turned down the Scottish Government's idea of a formal currency union - on the grounds that the rationale for sharing a currency with a foreign country was "not clear" - Sturgeon accused Westminster of trying to "bully Scotland" and said it would "cost their own businesses hundreds of millions in transaction costs". However, infighting between the two rival candidates for the Labour nomination, Mohammed Sarwar and Mike Watson, along with an energetic local campaign,[citation needed] resulted in Glasgow Govan being the only Scottish seat to see a swing away from Labour in the midst of a Labour landslide nationwide. [119][120] Sturgeon claimed that it was "clear that the people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union" and that Scotland had "spoken decisively" with a "strong, unequivocal" vote to remain in the European Union. ", "IFS: Independent Scotland 'would face continued austerity' under Growth Commission proposals", "Is post-referendum Scotland a feminist paradise? Many of these Catholic SNP converts were likely to have been among the 12,000 people who packed the Hydro arena in Glasgow on November 22. Yet many Scots Catholics were for a long time at ease with Britishness. [300][301] She was accused of using "dangerous language" and when asked if she regretted the comments, Sturgeon simply replied "No" and emphasised the point she detested Tory policies and not supporters or voters. Sturgeon stood for election to the Scottish Parliament in the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999 as the SNP candidate for Glasgow Govan. [24] Shortly after this, Sturgeon was appointed as the SNP's spokesperson for energy and education matters. [284] She has at various points commented on the behaviour or attitudes of men towards women; publicly condemning Donald Trump,[285] Tony Abbott[286] and former Labour MSP Neil Findlay. [16][17], In her early teens, Sturgeon joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and in 1986, at the age of 16, she became a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), quickly becoming the party's Youth Affairs Vice Convener and Publicity Vice Convener. The down side is that you just end up talking about it all the time and you never leave it outside. Aged 21, Sturgeon was selected as the SNP candidate in the Glasgow Shettleston constituency. [246] Per head, Scotland's death rate among the homeless is the highest in Britain. [111] The manifesto also included a commitment to increase NHS funding by 500 million, "baby boxes" full of essentials to newborn parents, and an ambitious new target to cut emissions by 50% by 2020 as of the party's effort to tackle climate change. [147] Labour MP Jess Phillips, a former employee of Women's Aid, accused Sturgeon of being "unprofessional with those women's lives" and said there had been a "litany of failures in professionalism and decency. "[275], Following the death of the Queen Elizabeth II, Sturgeon led tributes to the Queen. [234] In September 2021, Sturgeon was accused of shutting down debate about gender reforms after she described concerns about gender recognition reform as "not valid" and campaign groups and analysts complained that their concerns were being ignored. She also said that the result "renews, reinforces and strengthens" the mandate for Indyref2.[154]. The Catholic church has long ceased to be an effective opinion former a charge that could equally be levelled at most denominations, of course. The calls from Sturgeon's government and the wider independence movement for a second referendum were unsuccessful, as the UK government refused to grant a Section 30 order and in November 2022 the UK Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to hold a referendum on the question of Scottish independence. "If she wants to show leadership on climate she must clearly say: stop Cambo. [13] Her grandmother married Robert Sturgeon, a gardener from Ayr, at St Paul's Parish Church in 1943, and they both eventually moved back to the south west of Scotland. But he may have swayed enough members of the community to prevent a complete swing to separatism. This also made her First Minister-Designate, given the SNP's absolute majority in the Scottish Parliament. [256] In some local authorities the attainment gap between the richest and poorest students had widened. As the new leader of Scottish Labour, Murphy will certainly hope to bring disaffected voters to their senses by challenging what he sees as the dangerous impracticality of nationalism. [228], As part of the SNP's 2016 manifesto policy, the SNP pledged to voters review and reform the way that trans people change their legal gender. "We have seen a rapid increase in the number of confirmed cases in Scotland over the past 10 days," she told Parliament. She is the first woman to hold either position. Sturgeon was branded as "ungracious" when she was filmed by Sky News celebrating Swinson's defeat. [265] With London seeking to restrict immigration to the United Kingdom, she asserted that Scotland should be able to set its own immigration policy, as well as policies relating to employment and trade. Yet just like this makes it ironic for a Catholic to be ascending to lead Scottish Labour, the SNP is now being led by a flinty secularist. Early life and political career [328][329] She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2014. His then-depute, Roseanna Cunningham, immediately announced her intention to stand for the leadership. She has described herself as being an austere teen whose style tended towards goth, adding that if you see pictures of me back then, you would struggle to know whether I was a boy or a girl. [327], Forbes magazine ranked Sturgeon as the 50th most powerful woman in the world in 2016 and 2nd in the United Kingdom. Sturgeon was retained as Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing until a reshuffle one year later, when she was appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Capital Investment and Cities and an additional role overseeing the referendum on Scottish independence, essentially putting her in charge of the SNP's referendum campaign. She was categorised in 2015 as part of the SNP's gradualist wing, which believed in achieving independence through accumulating the Scottish Parliament's powers from the UK Parliament over time. While it commended the authorities for preventing hospitals from becoming overwhelmed during the crisis, the watchdog also noted that recommendations from pandemic planning exercises in 2015, 2016 and 2018 had not been fully implemented. [229] However, proposed changes to Scotland's Gender Recognition Act that would have allowed people to change their identity through self-identification, rather than a medical process, were paused in June 2019. A dispersal order had to be issued as officers in riot gear battled with boozed-up fans refusing to leave . The answer is No. The SNP won 48 seats, and came second place in the 11 others; their 45% of the vote yielded 80% of the seats in Scotland. .mw-parser-output .sidebar{width:22em;float:right;clear:right;margin:0.5em 0 1em 1em;background:#f8f9fa;border:1px solid #aaa;padding:0.2em;text-align:center;line-height:1.4em;font-size:88%;border-collapse:collapse;display:table}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .sidebar{display:table!important;float:right!important;margin:0.5em 0 1em 1em!important}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-subgroup{width:100%;margin:0;border-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-left{float:left;clear:left;margin:0.5em 1em 1em 0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-none{float:none;clear:both;margin:0.5em 1em 1em 0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-outer-title{padding:0 0.4em 0.2em;font-size:125%;line-height:1.2em;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-top-image{padding:0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-top-caption,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-pretitle-with-top-image,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-caption{padding:0.2em 0.4em 0;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-pretitle{padding:0.4em 0.4em 0;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{padding:0.2em 0.8em;font-size:145%;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{padding:0.1em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-image{padding:0.2em 0.4em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-heading{padding:0.1em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-content{padding:0 0.5em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-content-with-subgroup{padding:0.1em 0.4em 0.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-below{padding:0.3em 0.8em;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-below{border-top:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:1px solid #aaa}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-navbar{text-align:right;font-size:115%;padding:0 0.4em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title{padding:0 0.4em;text-align:left;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6em;font-size:105%}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title-c{padding:0 0.4em;text-align:center;margin:0 3.3em}@media(max-width:720px){body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .sidebar{width:100%!important;clear:both;float:none!important;margin-left:0!important;margin-right:0!important}}.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;padding:5px;border:none;font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .hidden-title{font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .hidden-content{text-align:left}, Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon[5] was born in Ayrshire Central Hospital in Irvine on 19 July 1970. [113], Despite losing her majority, Sturgeon claimed a "historic victory" after the SNP won a third consecutive term in government. [115][116][117], The UK Government held the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum to decide the future of the United Kingdom's European Union membership, in which all 32 council areas in Scotland voted by a majority for the United Kingdom to remain a member of the EU. [337], In 2016, Sturgeon disclosed that she had miscarried five years previously. [156] On 23 March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Sturgeon ordered Scotland into "lockdown", limiting the reasons why people may leave their homes in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus, to protect the health of the population, and to ease the pressure the virus placed on NHS Scotland services and workforce. What religion are the Bee Gees? [105] Sturgeon had stated that the party's success in the election was not a mandate for another independence referendum, but primarily for a stronger voice for Scotland in London. [32], The results of the leadership contest were announced on 3 September 2004, with Salmond and Sturgeon elected as Leader and Depute Leader respectively. There was no agreement on oil and gas exploration, but the government now argued that it had a stronger case for a national independence referendum. [100], The departure of Kenny MacAskill and Michael Russell signalled a generational shift away from the 79 group. Scotland would then have to reapply for EU membership and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso predicted this would be "extremely difficult, if not impossible". [244] Sturgeon sacked her Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick and in April 2021 said of the crisis: "I think we took our eye off the ball. [96][97] During her first First Minister's Questions after being sworn in, Sturgeon tried to strike a conciliatory tone, saying that she came into her new post "with an open mind and a willingness to hear proposals from all sides of the chamber. [180] In the election, the SNP won 64 of the 129 seats contested. "[207][208][209][210], In June 2022, Sturgeon officially announced her plan for Scottish independence once again. [3][4] She entered office amid a rapid surge in membership of the SNP and this was reflected in the party's performance in the 2015 general election, when it ended Labour's thirty year electoral dominance of Scottish Westminster seats, as it won 56 of the 59 seats and replaced the Liberal Democrats as the third-largest party in the British House of Commons. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon hit out at anti-catholic bigotry in Scotland (Image: PA) Read More Related Articles. Nicola Sturgeon denied taking a different approach to Scotland fans last week travelling to London to Rangers fans when they celebrated their league win. [68], While campaigning for a Yes vote in August 2013, she told The Guardian that if Scots voted for the Union: "Will there be another referendum round the corner? In the same interview, Sturgeon committed to no independence referendum being held prior to the terms of a UK wide Brexit deal being agreed and presented. Michael Matheson was promoted asjustice secretary. Anthony Horan, director of the Catholic Parliamentary . By the looks of it, Nicola Sturgeon religion is Catholic. Likewise, she also holds the leader of the Scottish National Party position. [235], On 22 December 2022, the Scottish Parliament voted 86 to 39 to pass the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill which was introduced by Sturgeon's government. [189], The announcement was welcomed by the Scottish Green party but Greenpeace criticised Sturgeon for not coming out more strongly against the oil field. "[177][178][179], Sturgeon led the SNP into the 2021 Scottish Parliament election on a manifesto promise to hold a second independence referendum after the COVID-19 pandemic was over. This followed her admitting that she had had a secret meeting and subsequent phone call with Salmond about the Scottish government's allegations against him. First Minister condemns anti-Catholic bigotry. 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