Nicola Sturgeon’s biggest blunders in eight years of power

Nicola Sturgeon announces she is to step down as SNP leader

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And just like that, it’s over. After 3,009 days in power — a record-breaking tenure — Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced her resignation. Many had speculated whether the departure was coming, Scotland having been viewed as stagnating for the last few years.

She will not stand down with immediate effect, in order to allow for time for a successor to be selected.

A source close to Ms Sturgeon said it came as she had “had enough”, according to the BBC, similar to the reason given by New Zealand’s recently departed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Many SNP politicians say they have been taken by surprise at the announcement, given that, for some, she hadn’t put a foot wrong in her eight years in Holyrood. But memories are short and selective.

While Ms Sturgeon has achieved many things in Scotland — she has guided the SNP to three thumping elections, made serious efforts to reform Scotland’s education system, especially in the country’s most deprived areas, and wheeled in a new welfare agency — in many areas, Scotland has gone backwards.

The Queensferry Crossing was delivered under budget, but the costs and timescale in ferry construction projects have ballooned, leaving Scots out of pocket.

Other wide-scale projects hinted that Ms Sturgeon’s head wasn’t quite in the game. The named person scheme, which hoped to appoint a named person to safeguard the welfare of every child in the country, was due to be introduced in 2016 but ended up being scrapped in 2019.

Ms Sturgeon’s opposite numbers at the time described it as a “complete humiliation” for the SNP.

The Scottish Conservatives called on John Swinney, who was then Scottish Education Secretary and today Deputy First Minister, to apologise for the “millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that has been wasted” and to “all the professionals on the front line who have been faced with endless bureaucracy around this policy”.

Scotland’s standard of healthcare in general has taken a serious decline. Diagnoses of early-stage cancer have fallen to their lowest level in a decade, almost 2,000 children and young people are believed to have been waiting over a year for mental health treatment, and the Scottish NHS’ maintenance backlog is over £1billion.

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Ms Sturgeon has attempted to take on her country’s very serious drug abuse problem, but in almost a decade, has failed.

Drug death rates are five times higher in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK, and drug deaths, in general, have tripled during the SNP’s time in power — although not all of that time was under Ms Sturgeon.

On January 10, 2023, the Scottish-based Daily Record’s political editor, Paul Hutcheon, wrote a damning analysis of Ms Sturgeon’s failure as Scottish leader, describing a Scotland that under her watch is a “dangerous country in which to fall ill”.

Talking of the widespread delays in hospital waiting times, Mr Hutcheon wrote: “[Ms] Sturgeon’s remedy resembles the same type of sticking plaster solution that her Government has reached for in the past. More cash for NHS 24. Extra investment for care packages. All paid for by higher taxes.”

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Ms Sturgeon, just like some of her UK counterparts, also severely miscalculated coronavirus pandemic policy.

She was criticised for transferring COVID-19 patients from hospitals into care homes between March and May 2020 — a decision she said will “stay with me forever” after many died.

The First Minister has also failed to deliver on many promises made to the Scottish people.

For years, she spoke of a state-run energy company that would buy its energy on the wholesale market or generate it in Scotland, ultimately cutting prices for Scottish residents.

But it never came. By 2021 — the year the company was meant to come into being — the SNP had scrapped it in all but name.

Making an about-turn, the Scottish government said the plans had been “halted” because of the pandemic, and would instead “coordinate and accelerate” the delivery of heat and energy efficiency work, “informing and educating” the public on required changes.

The list goes on, and what Ms Sturgeon will do now is unknown. Often, former leaders are hired to give speeches at international events or employed as advisers or officers at well-paid private companies.

In a press conference announcing her departure, she described the First Minister role as the “best job in the world”, and one that has “inspired” her life.

She said she was “very proud” at what she had achieved in office, but sensed the “time was right” to make way for someone else to take the job.

Tributes have flooded in for Ms Sturgeon, including from Ian Blackford, the former SNP Westminster leader, who wrote on Twitter: “Nicola Sturgeon is the finest First Minster Scotland has ever had, and the finest friend anyone could hope for.

“When Scotland wins independence, she will have been its architect and builder. She has laid the foundations we all now stand on. We owe it to her to finish the job.”

Also writing on Twitter, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thanked Ms Sturgeon for her “long-standing service” and said he “wished her all the best for her next steps”.

He added: “We will continue to work closely with the @scotgov on our joint efforts to deliver for people across Scotland.”

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