Scotland's first female prime minister: who is Nicola Sturgeon?

In Scotland, former Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been detained by police investigating allegations of financial misconduct by the Scottish National Party (SNP). Sturgeon, who resigned from her post as SNP leader in early April, is the third person arrested as part of Operation Branchform, where Police Scotland is investigating allegations that more than £600,000 of donations to the independence campaign have been misspent by the party.

Sturgeon was released after testifying.

Her husband, Peter Murrell, former leader of the SNP, was detained at their home in Uddingston, near Glasgow, on 5 April and was released without charge. Murrell was questioned for about 12 hours. Police searched the couple's homes and backyards, and also searched the SNP's headquarters under a search warrant, extracting boxes of documents and computers. Colin Beattie MSP, who was the party's treasurer at the time, was arrested and questioned on April 18 as part of the same investigation and was later released without charge.

The first female prime minister

Announcing her resignation on February 15, Sturgeon said, "I know in my mind and heart that this is the right time to resign." The former leader of Scotland is the country's longest-serving prime minister and the first woman to hold the post.

Branchform Operation

Within a month of Sturgeon's last day in office, March 28, the investigation into SNP's finances launched two years ago came to the fore. Complaints were made about more than £600,000 donated to the party by activists. This money was raised to try to raise funds for the party's future referendum campaign, and Police Scotland launched Operation Branchform to investigate what happened to that money.

WHO IS NICOLA STURGEON?

Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician. Fifth Prime Minister of Scotland. She was the leader of the Scottish National Party from 2014-2023. She has been a member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999. It was originally a member of the Glasgow constituency from 1999 to 2007 and has been a member of Glasgow Southside since 2007.

After graduating from Glasgow University with a law degree, she worked as a solicitor in Glasgow. She was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and served as SNP minister for education, health, and justice. In 2004, after the resignation of John Swinney, she became the SNP presidential candidate but withdrew in favor of Alex Salmond.

Sturgeon, who was "Scotland's first female prime minister" and "the first female president of the SNP", served as prime minister for 9 years.

Sturgeon, who has also been a member of parliament for nearly 25 years, was elected party chairman and prime minister in the election held after her resignation following the "no" result in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, in which former Prime Minister Alex Salmond supported "yes" votes.

Sturgeon's second independence referendum, which is also "the longest-serving politician in Scotland", was blocked by the Supreme Court in England.