Nicola Sturgeon news – live: Trump says ‘good riddance’ to ‘extremist’ SNP leader

Former US president attacked Sturgeon’s support for transgender rights

Nicola Sturgeon: Ian Blackford 'saddened' to see 'outstanding' leader resign as First Minister

Former president Donald Trump blasted Nicola Sturgeon as the Scottish First Minister announced she would resign, in a transphobic rant that cited his properties in the country.

Mr Trump made the remarks after Ms Sturgeon announced that she would resign as the head of Scotland’s government on Wednesday.

“Good riddance to failed woke extremist Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland!” Mr Trump said in a statement. “This crazed leftist symbolizes everything wrong with identity politics.”

Specifically, Mr Trump cited her support for transgender rights.

“Sturgeon thought it was OK to put a biological man in a women’s prison, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Sturgeon fought for a ‘Gender Recognition Reform Bill’ that would have allowed 16-year-old children to change their gender without medical advice,” Mr Trump said.

Meanwhile, the SNP’s national executive committee is meeting online at 6.30pm on Thursday to discuss the timing for a leadership contest.

Though there is no obvious candidate to succeed the outgoing first minister, potential candidates include: External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson; Finance Secretary Kate Forbes; Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

Key Points

• Trump blasts Nicola Sturgeon as ‘failed woke extremist’ in furious rant after Scottish leader steps down
• Search begins for new SNP leader as evangelical Christian narrowly leads race for top job
• Scotland’s Jacinda Ardern? Cabinet secretary Kate Forbes leads race to replace Nicola Sturgeon
• Nicola Sturgeon dodges question on ‘missing’ £600,000 campaign funds

[16 February 2023 12:25 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Trump blasts Nicola Sturgeon as ‘failed woke extremist’ in furious rant after Scottish leader steps down

Former president Donald Trump blasted Nicola Sturgeon as the Scottish First Minister announced she would resign, in a transphobic rant that cited his properties in the country.

Mr Trump made the remarks after Ms Sturgeon announced that she would resign as the head of Scotland’s government on Wednesday.

“Good riddance to failed woke extremist Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland!” Mr Trump said in a statement. “This crazed leftist symbolizes everything wrong with identity politics.”

Specifically, Mr Trump cited her support for transgender rights.

“Sturgeon thought it was OK to put a biological man in a women’s prison, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Sturgeon fought for a ‘Gender Recognition Reform Bill’ that would have allowed 16-year-old children to change their gender without medical advice,” Mr Trump said.

[16 February 2023 14:28 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

That’s all for our liveblog on Nicola Sturgeon news today. Thank you for tuning in!

[16 February 2023 13:55 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Facts, figures and faces from Nicola Sturgeon’s time as First Minister

When Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister of Scotland in 2014, David Cameron was prime minister, the UK was still in the European Union and Cilla Black was still alive.

Since then, the UK has changed prime ministers four times and left the EU, while a host of famous names – from David Bowie to Victoria Wood – have died.

Ms Sturgeon is already the longest-serving First Minister in history and will step down having clocked up more than eight years in the role.

Her predecessor and former SNP leader Alex Salmond held the post for seven-and-a-half years.

During her time in office, the UK has seen five different prime ministers, all of them Conservative: David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

[16 February 2023 13:30 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Labour promises more community cops like Happy Valley’s Catherine Cawood

Labour has promised to fund thousands of new neighbourhood police officers like Happy Valley’s Catherine Cawood – claiming the Tory government had abandoned the use of local knowledge to tackle crime.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper cited the BBC programme’s lead character as an inspiration as she accused the Tories of “walking away” from community policing.

She promised a Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer would recruit an extra 13,000 community police officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) to tackle knife crime and drug dealing if elected.

“Catherine Cawood may be fiction,” said Ms Cooper. “But the stories of police officers like Catherine who know their communities, who pick up the things that everyone else misses to solve crimes and keep people safe, are very real. And we need more of them.”

[16 February 2023 12:58 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Watch: Livestream of Rishi Sunak welcoming Polish president

Watch our livestream here of prime minister Rishi Sunak welcoming the Polish president Andrzej Duda.

[16 February 2023 12:00 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

SNP conference should be postponed for leadership race, Flynn says

The SNP’s Westminster leader has said the special SNP conference should be delayed to allow for Nicola Sturgeon’s successor to be appointed.

The party planned to hold a meeting on March 19 to discuss the path towards an independence vote, with Ms Sturgeon backing the use of the next general election as a de facto referendum.

But Stephen Flynn has said the meeting should be pushed back.

He told Sky News: “The de facto referendum was obviously put forward by the First Minister and we were going to be discussing and debating the merits of that at that party conference.

“I personally think that party conference should be paused, for obvious reasons.

“I think the new leader should have the opportunity and indeed the space to set out their position, their values and their intentions going forward.

“So that would be my take in relation to that. I think it’s sensible that we do hit the pause button on that conference and allow the new leader the opportunity to set out their vision.”

The Westminster leader has previously ruled himself out of contention for the role, adding that the next head of the SNP will come from the Holyrood group.

The SNP’s national executive committee will meet online at 6.30pm on Thursday to discuss the timing for a leadership contest, following Ms Sturgeon’s shock announcement on Wednesday of her resignation as First Minister and head of the party.

The SNP Westminster leader said he supported the idea of postponing the conference (PA Wire)

[16 February 2023 11:25 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Nicola Sturgeon’s tearful exit throws push for Scottish independence into doubt

Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation as first minister has raised doubts about the future of Scottish independence – with opposition parties declaring the SNP’s cause “dead”.

The SNP leader announced she was stepping down at a press conference on Wednesday, lamenting the “brutal” nature of politics and saying she knew “in my head and in my heart” that it was the right time to step down.

Ms Sturgeon has come under fire for saying that her party would fight the next general election as a de facto referendum on Scottish independence – an issue she said the SNP was now “free” to decide how to pursue following her exit.

But Labour figures claimed her resignation would give their party an opportunity to win back as many as 20 seats in Scotland, where Labour was almost wiped out just eight years ago, and boost Sir Keir Starmer’s chance of a majority at the 2024 general election.

[16 February 2023 10:55 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Nicola Sturgeon dodges question on ‘missing’ £600,000 campaign funds

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first female first minister, announced that she would be stepping down as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) on Wednesday after eight years in power.

In an often emotional address from Bute House in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon spoke candidly about her time in office, saying it was time for her to make way for fresh talent, admitting she had been something of a divisive figure in British public life and taking the opportunity to warn against the increasingly toxic nature of political debate at home and abroad.

She denied that she had felt compelled to step aside by a series of recent political setbacks, notably the failure to secure a second independence referendum and a move by Westminster to block new Holyrood gender recognition legislation, and said steering Scotland through the Covid-19 pandemic had been the greatest challenge of her career.

One question Ms Sturgeon declined to be drawn on, however, was whether or not she had been interviewed by police as part of an investigation into the SNP’s campaign finances.

Joe Sommerlad reports:

[16 February 2023 10:52 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Search begins for new SNP leader as evangelical Christian narrowly leads race for top job

The race to replace Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and Scottish first minister will be a “contested” election, the SNP’s president has said – as the party grinds into action to hold a leadership contest.

Ms Sturgeon shocked Holyrood on Wednesday after she announced she was stepping down at a hastily arranged press conference.

Initial polling suggests there is no clear frontrunner to succeed the First Minister, who spent eight years in the job without anointing an obvious successor.

The narrow favourite to succeed the Glasgow MSP is Kate Forbes, the Scottish government’s 32-year-old finance secretary.

Ms Forbes, a fluent Gaelic speaker who represents part of the Highlands in the Scottish Parliament, enjoys a higher profile because of her role in charge of the Scottish government budget.

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports:

[16 February 2023 10:46 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Scotland’s Jacinda Ardern? Cabinet secretary Kate Forbes leads race to replace Nicola Sturgeon

Kate Forbes has been tipped as the natural successor to Nicola Sturgeon ever since she was elected to the Scottish parliament in 2016.

Now that her former boss has created a vacancy, fervour around the 32-year-old finance secretary’s possible accession to the leadership looks set only to grow.

The Highlander and fluent Gaelic speaker won many admirers in 2020 after she became the first woman to deliver the Scottish Budget following devolution, having stepped in at the last minute to replace the finance secretary at the time, Derek Mackay.

Ms Sturgeon resigned at a press conference at her official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh, on Wednesday, after leading the party for more than eight years. It is “right for me, for my party and for my country”, she said in a tearful address.

Adam Forrest and Emily Atkinson report: