What will Nicola Sturgeon's legacy be?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nicola Sturgeon has announced her intention to step down at the next Scottish Parliament election in May 2026. One of the original MSPs elected to Holyrood in 1999, Sturgeon has dominated Scottish and UK politics over the past two decades. The Salmond-Sturgeon era began in 2004 and she went on to serve as First Minister for the best part of a decade.

Stewart McDonald, former SNP MP for Glasgow South 2015-24, and Lucy Dunn join James Heale on this special Coffee House Scots to discuss Sturgeon's legacy. She brought Scotland the closest to independence for 300 years, yet resigned in 2023 under a cloud over party management. Attention turns to next year's election, could the SNP's winning streak continue without her?

Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Natasha Feroze.

Transcript

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0:52.8	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Heel and I'm joined today by Lucy Dunn from The Spectator
0:57.7	and former SNP member for Glasgow South, Stuart McDonnell. Welcome both for coming on today and the big news,
1:03.5	of course, Lucy, is that Nicholas Sturgeon has announced she will be standing down from her constituency
1:07.5	at the next election in May 26. Talk us through why now the timing
1:12.1	behind us? So after quite a lot of speculation, because journalists have been asking for quite
1:16.0	well now whether Nicholas Urgen will stay on at 2026 or leave, this morning she posted an Instagram
1:21.8	post to let everyone know that she would be stepping down next year at the election. It's come at a time after 26 years of being
1:31.2	in Scottish Parliament. You know, she was one of the 99ers elected at the very first Scottish Parliament
1:35.3	election. She has had quite tumultuous past couple of years and she talked today when she was being
1:40.4	interviewed about her mixed emotions. She's sort of sad but relieved as well to be leaving.
1:45.2	And I think she also nodded towards having some regrets potentially about the last 18 months.
1:49.0	But we do know that she has got a memoir coming out in the summer. So she's got lots of other things to keep her occupied.
1:56.2	But yeah, certainly it's quite an interesting moment given just how big a figure Nicola Sturgeon is in Scottish politics.
2:02.2	And I think, you know, no matter where you stand on the subject of independence, you know, Nicholas Urgen is a formidable politician.
	...

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