Nicola Sturgeon says she could leave Scotland ‘for a wee while'
The former Scottish first minister said a focus on her political career meant she had had to 'forego' living elsewhere.
Speaking as her memoir is published, she suggested she could have a 'perspective shift' by living elsewhere.
Her comments come as she prepares to step down as an MSP at next May's Holyrood elections – by which point she will have served 27 years in the Scottish Parliament, including more than eight years as first minister.
She was arrested and questioned by police as part of the investigation into SNP finances, but has now been formally cleared.
However, her husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, who she announced her separation from in January this year, has appeared in court charged with alleged embezzlement.
Ms Sturgeon said she was now at a point in her life where she is 'happy, contented, looking forward to the future'.
But she told BBC Breakfast that while she might live elsewhere for a period, she said she would 'never leave Scotland for very long'.
She stated: 'Scotland is my home, it is where I belong, it is where my family is.'
She added: 'One of the things about being so focused on a political career is that you forego certain things.
'I didn't live outside of Scotland or the UK for any period when I was younger, I think it is healthy to shift your perspective, to see life from a different angle.
'So, maybe for a wee while I will take myself outside of Scotland, give myself that perspective shift, but I am never going to be away for very long.'
Speaking about her memoir, titled Frankly, she said it had been 'important to me to tell my story in my words'.
The former SNP leader said: 'I hope lots of people read it, I hope they enjoy it, but it is out there now and people can make up their own minds, and that is actually a nice feeling and I am enjoying that.'
She added: 'What I have done in this book is put my story in my words.
'There will be people who enjoy reading it, there will be people who don't. There will be people who slag it off who never read it at all.
'But I am really comfortable I have put my story in my words.'
She insisted she is 'really proud of what I achieved as first minister', but added that there was 'lots I wish I had done different and done better' during her time in power.
But she stressed that after going through 'difficult' times, she has now found 'a real sense of happiness and joy in life'.
Asked about her arrest by police in June 2023, she said the period had been 'difficult' and 'horrific', adding that in the police station she 'felt probably at the lowest ebb in my life'.
Ms Sturgeon said: 'What the book also recounts is a process of going through that really difficult time and coming out the other end of it, so it is also a story of resilience and strength.
'I hope people can take something from that as well, that you can face these really tough times in your life – and I know people have faced much, much tougher things in life than I have – but you find within yourself a strength.'
She also made clear she has 'no doubt at all' that Scotland will become independent – vowing to campaign in any future referendum on the issue.
Ms Sturgeon had been a key figure in the campaign leading up to the 2014 vote, which saw Scots vote by 55% to 45% to stay part of the UK.
The former SNP leader accepted that her goal of independence 'wasn't delivered in my time in office', but she said: 'It will happen, I am absolutely in no doubt at all.'
She stated: 'I write in the book about what I predict, in not that long a timespan, will be a kind of rewired UK, a sort of federation of the nations, and an independent Scotland will be part of that.'
While she said she may not lead an independent Scotland, she said she would 'at some point in the next few years' be involved in campaigning for independence in another referendum.
Speaking about a future vote, she added: 'If there is – when there is – another decision on Scottish independence, it will be a case of hold me back. I'll be there.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wales Online
18 minutes ago
- Wales Online
Snooker world champion Graeme Dott to stand trial over child sex abuse allegations
Snooker world champion Graeme Dott to stand trial over child sex abuse allegations The 48-year-old has pleaded not guilty to two charges relating to primary school age children Graeme Dott (Image: Getty Images) Former world snooker champion Graeme Dott is to stand trial next year over allegations of child sex abuse. Dott, 48, is accused of two charges relating to primary school age children. The allegations span between 1993 and 1996 involving a girl, and 2006 to 2010 involving a boy, both in the Glasgow region. A virtual hearing at the High Court in Glasgow on Thursday was told Dott, who was not present, denies the charges. Defending, Euan Dow said: "He pleads not guilty to two charges on the indictment. Article continues below "The position of the accused is that the allegations are fabricated and there is no truth in any of them." A trial date was set for August 17 next year at the same court and bail was continued. Dott was suspended by snooker's governing body in April after being charged. Article continues below Dott won the world snooker championship in 2006 after beating Peter Ebdon in the final at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The Scottish player also reached the final on two other occasions, losing to Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2004 and Neil Robertson in 2010.
The National
28 minutes ago
- The National
Nicola Sturgeon says monarchy 'should end soon' at book launch
The former first minister was interviewed by ex-BBC Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark in a packed out McEwan Hall as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. As part of the conversation, Sturgeon reflected on her encounters with Queen Elizabeth, a woman she said she had had "huge admiration" for. But she went on to say King Charles and other members of the royal family so not have the same "mystique" as the Queen did, and so people are coming to realise the "absurdities" of the monarchy. Asked about when the monarchy should end, Sturgeon said: "I think it should end probably quite soon." READ MORE: National Library of Scotland debunks claim it 'banned' gender-critical book After a round of applause, she went on: "I think we will look back, and I don't know if this will be in 10 years or 100 years, and history will look back on the death of Queen Elizabeth as probably the beginning of the end of the monarchy because there was such a mystique around her and, with the greatest of respect to the King and the other members of the royal family, I just don't think they have that to the same extent and I think without that, what we focus more on and what we will focus more on are the absurdities of the monarchy." Sturgeon has been under the spotlight this whole week following the release of Frankly, which officially came out on Thursday but has been available in bookshops since Monday. The relationship between Sturgeon and her predecessor Alex Salmond dominated the interview, with Wark asking early on in the chat whether Sturgeon felt Salmond had ever been guilty of "coercive control". Wark claimed there had "almost been a thread of coercive control" from Salmond running through the book which she asked Sturgeon about. The former first minister replied: "I wouldn't describe it as that. "He was an incredibly strong and charismatic individual and for much of my life he was a force for good. He encouraged me to reach beyond what I would have considered my abilities to be, he pushed me on. I once said ages ago he believed in me before I believed in myself and all of that is true. I try to be true to that in the book and not to rewrite history." She went on to describe how Salmond's approval and disapproval of her impacted her greatly, something she came to realise through getting counselling. She said: "What I do think is that I realised a couple of times, even after I was first minister, that his approval mattered to me and his disapproval knocked by confidence and I think latterly, he probably played on that a little bit, but that was something I realised was there through my psychologist." Sturgeon was also heavily quizzed about her leadership around gender reform. Earlier this week Sturgeon said she should have paused gender reform legislation that was going through the Scottish Parliament towards the end of her tenure. READ MORE: SNP demand UK Government act amid Israeli E1 plan in West Bank The Gender Recognition Reform Bill would have allowed transgender people to self-identify and simplified the requirements to acquire a gender recognition certificate (GRC), before it was blocked by Westminster from becoming law. She said during the interview that one of the reasons she may not have paused was to not "give in" to transphobic people. "When it became so toxic, maybe I should have taken a step back and paused to see if we could find a less divisive way through it. Would that have worked? I don't know. "But I guess what stopped me, and I'm not saying this was the right decision, but if I look back on what stopped me at the time [...], every time I say this I get howls of derision even though I caveat it in the way I'm about to caveat it, but I don't think everyone who disagrees with me on this issue is transphobic. But this whole issue has been hijacked and weaponised by people who are transphobic. "I think I perhaps worried that to pause at the time would have been to give in to that."
Glasgow Times
40 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
No-fault evictions by bailiffs up 8% in Labour's first year in Government
The party has pledged to end no-fault evictions under its Renters' Rights Bill, which is in the final stages of going through Parliament. Shelter branded it 'unconscionable' that renters 'continue to be marched out of their homes by bailiffs' a year after Labour came to power. There were 11,402 repossessions by county court bailiffs following a Section 21 notice – known as a no-fault eviction – between July last year and June, according to data published by the Ministry of Justice. This was up 8% from 10,576 for the previous 12-month period. There were 2,679 in the three months to June, which was down from 2,931 the previous quarter and down from 2,915 for the same April to June period last year. The latest Government data also showed 30,729 claims had been issued to households under the accelerated procedure in the year to June. Landlords can apply for an accelerated possession order if the tenants have not left by the date specified in a Section 21 notice. The current figure was down 4% from 32,103 for the previous 12-month period. Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at Shelter, said: 'It is unconscionable that more than a year after the Government came to power, thousands of renters continue to be marched out of their homes by bailiffs because of an unfair policy that the Government said would be scrapped immediately. 'For far too long, tenants' lives have been thrown into turmoil by the rank injustice of no-fault evictions. At the whim of private landlords, thousands of tenants are being left with just two months to find a new home, plunging them into a ruthless rental market and leaving many exposed to the riptide of homelessness. 'The Renters' Rights Bill will overhaul a broken system and usher in a long-overdue era of stability and security for tenants. To curb record homelessness and ensure renters can live free from the threat of no-fault eviction, the Government must deliver on this commitment, pass the Bill, and name an implementation date when Section 21 will finally be scrapped.' Shelter described no-fault evictions as one of the leading causes of homelessness, giving landlords the power to evict tenants without any reason given. Rushanara Ali resigned last week as homelessness minister (David Woolfall/UK Parliament/PA) The charity said its analysis of the latest figures suggested that for every month a ban on no-fault evictions is delayed, around 950 households could be removed from their homes by bailiffs. Echoing the call for an urgent ban, homelessness charity Crisis said many are at risk of homelessness if faced with eviction. The charity's chief executive, Matt Downie, said: 'Despite good intentions from the Westminster Government, thousands of people are still being unjustly evicted from their homes and threatened with – or even forced into – homelessness. 'We know the UK Government has had a packed agenda, but we now need ministers to rebuff efforts to weaken the Renters' Rights Bill and get this new legislation onto the statute book as soon as possible when Parliament returns. Unfreezing housing benefit in the autumn would also ensure that more people in England can afford a safe and stable home.' The Renters' Reform Coalition, said the year-on-year fall in accelerated procedure claims 'blows apart the myth of a 'landlord exodus' and eviction surge caused by the Renters' Rights Bill' and urged the Government to 'press on and abolish section 21 immediately once the Bill is passed'. The new data comes a week after Rushanara Ali resigned her role as homelessness minister following a report that she gave tenants at a property she owned in east London four months' notice to leave before relisting the property with a £700 rent increase within weeks. Ms Ali's house, rented on a fixed-term contract, was put up for sale while the tenants were living there, and it was only relisted as a rental because it had not sold, according to the i newspaper. Such a move would likely be prohibited under the Renters' Rights Bill, which is set to introduce new protections for tenants including banning landlords who evict tenants in order to sell their property from relisting it for rent for six months. In her resignation letter Ms Ali insisted she had 'at all times' followed 'all legal requirements' and taken her responsibilities 'seriously', but added that continuing in her role would be 'a distraction from the ambitious work of the Government' and therefore was stepping down. Responding to Thursday's figures, a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: 'No one should live in fear of a Section 21 eviction and these new figures show exactly why we will abolish them through our Renters' Rights Bill, which is a manifesto commitment and legislative priority for this Government. 'We're determined to level the playing field by providing tenants with greater security, rights and protections in their homes and our landmark reforms will be implemented swiftly after the Bill becomes law.'
