Nico
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures
Sky News reports, citing a senior government official, Nicola Sturgeon is set to step down as Scotland’s first minister.
The Scottish government will hold a press conference at 11am London time.
Sturgeon is Scotland’s longest serving first minister, holding the post and leading the Scottish National Party since 2014. She is the first woman to hold the post of Scottish leader.
In recent months, she has faced criticism and praise for legislative reform led by the SNP, which would make it easier for people to change their legal gender and lower the age at which they can do so, from 18 to 16.
Sturgeon has come under pressure to clarify her stance on transgender women being jailed in women’s prisons, after safety concerns were raised in a case. case in Scotland.
Sturgeon was the deputy leader of the SNP in the 2014 referendum, in which 55.3% of poll respondents voted against Scotland’s separation from the UK. She replaced Alex Salmond as party leader and became First Minister of Scotland, following the independence vote.
The SNP has held a majority in the Scottish parliament – known as Holyrood – since 2011.
Sturgeon has become a popular figure in British politics, spurring a second independent poll, after many Scots voted against the proposals of the 2016 Brexit vote. Great Court of Great Britain rule that any second Scottish independence vote would have to be approved by the UK government, which did not support the proposal.
This is breaking news and will be updated as soon as possible.
