By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 15 October 2014
Nicola Sturgeon is set to become Scotland’s first female First Minister after the deadline for nominations to succeed Alex Salmond as leader of the Scottish National Party passed without any other candidates coming forward.
Sturgeon, the current Deputy First Minister, will be formally installed as leader at next month’s SNP conference, and then confirmed as Scotland’s fifth First Minister by the Scottish Parliament, where the SNP has a slender overall majority.
Speaking ahead of the close of nominations, she pledged to head ‘a strong and competent government in a powerhouse parliament’.
She also announced plans for a series of major rallies across Scotland to set out her stall to SNP members. The party has seen a large increase in membership following last month’s independence referendum, which has seen it become the UK’s third largest political party.
‘The tour of Scotland that I will undertake in the next few weeks also sets the template for the kind of First Minister I want to be – open, accessible and determined to work with others across the political divide to find common cause and build a better country,’ she said.
Though Sturgeon has long been seen as Salmond’s protégé, she is expected to adopt a markedly different style from her mentor, partly because her political instincts are generally thought of as being to the left of his, but more importantly because of the changed circumstances confronting both party and country after last month’s referendum.
Sturgeon faces the challenge of refocusing the party’s mission, and maintaining its formidable discipline, in the wake of having lost the referendum yet at the same time seen its membership more than treble in the past month from 25,000 to around 85,000.
She takes up post as the Smith Commission ¬– formed to take forward the UK government’s pledge to increase Holyrood’s powers following a no vote – aims to agree a scheme of enhanced devolution. The SNP has joined the negotiations with a call for everything except defence and foreign affairs to be devolved.
Sturgeon will also look to achieve significant gains at next May’s UK general election, with the SNP likely to argue that a strong presence form the party in Westminster will help guarantee Scotland’s share of UK public spending.
Following the close of nominations, there are also three candidates to succeed Sturgeon as deputy leader – Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown, who looks to be the favourite at present; Youth Unemployment Cabinet Secretary Angela Constance; and Westminster Treasury spokesman Stewart Hosie.
