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Compassionate but calculating, high-minded but willing to deal a low blow, Nicola Sturgeon has always been a complex politician. And every side of the Scottish first minister’s multi-faceted persona was on show this week as she fought for her political life.
She has been accused by her predecessor and former mentor, Alex Salmond, of misleading parliament and of a broad failure of leadership around sexual harassment complaints against him. Over eight gruelling hours of testimony in the Scottish parliament, Sturgeon was by turns humble, humorous, testy and tough. “In one of the most invidious political and personal situations that I have ever faced, I believe that I acted properly and appropriately,†she said.
It was a critical moment for the country as well as for the first minister and her pro-independence Scottish National party government. Six years after Scotland voted to remain in the UK, the future of its three-century-old merger with England is more uncertain than ever. With opinion polls showing support for the party and for independence, pro-union politicians hope the rift between the two champions of Scottish sovereignty will save the union.
It has been an extraordinary journey for Sturgeon, 50, who joined the SNP as a shy 16-year-old schoolgirl in 1987. Back then the SNP was still a fringe force, but Sturgeon saw independence as the answer to the imposition of UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s rightwing policies on a left-leaning Scottish electorate.
That conviction has stayed with her. A self-consciously progressive politician, Sturgeon pushed for gender-balanced SNP candidate lists in the 1990s and has appointed a cabinet with as many women as men. She has also tried to reduce wealth inequality, introducing more progressive rates of Scottish income tax and a new child poverty payment.
Brought up in a council house by working-class parents, Sturgeon’s sharp intelligence and self-discipline carried her to Glasgow university and a short career as a lawyer that was soon overshadowed by political campaigning. She was not a naturally charismatic politician, often appearing to others as humourless and cold. “Nicola would enter the room and the temperature just dropped,†recalls one person who knew her in the 1990s.
So Sturgeon set about softening her manner and image. While she remains a combative debater, she has mastered the art of connecting and empathising with strangers and the public. It is an ability Sir John Curtice, a politics professor at Strathclyde university, says has been hugely valuable during the pandemic. “She is neither a natural public speaker nor a natural one-to-one person, but she has learnt to do both,†Curtice says.
Sturgeon’s communication skills, combined with a lawyer’s command of her brief and an instinctively cautious approach, have helped her approval ratings to soar. Her popularity infuriates opposition party rivals, who say it obscures SNP policy failures in areas such as education and health since she took over in 2014. They say that the costs of leaving the UK would make it a huge challenge for an independent Scotland to fund even current levels of social spending.
Salmond’s claims of a conspiracy against him raise more fundamental questions about Sturgeon’s character and Scotland’s readiness for independence. The accusations stem from 2018 complaints by two civil servants dating to his time of office. In 2019, the Scottish government accepted in court that its investigation into the case was “procedurally unfair†and “tainted by apparent biasâ€. At a criminal trial last year, Salmond was acquitted of all 13 sexual offences charges against him.
Salmond accuses Sturgeon of breaching the ministerial code by misleading parliament about when she learned of the complaints. And he says his former protégé’s closest associates were involved in “malicious and concerted†efforts to damage his reputation.
Sturgeon denies the claims. At her committee appearance, she said the botched investigation was an honest effort to ensure women could report sexual misconduct. The root of Salmond’s anger, she suggested, was that she “refused to follow the age-old pattern of allowing a powerful man to use his status and connections to get what he wantsâ€.
Some observers were unconvinced. Sturgeon apologised for the failings of the investigation, but nobody in the government has taken direct responsibility. And the parliamentary inquiry has struggled to extract key documents from the government. James Mitchell, a professor of public policy at Edinburgh university, said Sturgeon’s performance “was a masterclass in performative politics†but a “failure†of accountability and transparency.
The impact on Sturgeon’s reputation remains unclear. Political analysts said Sturgeon’s performance would probably be strong enough to retain the backing of most swing voters and SNP supporters. But she is still under investigation over the ministerial code and even a small drop in voter support could stop the SNP winning a majority in Scotland’s parliamentary elections in May, making it easier for the UK government to refuse a second independence referendum.
The first minister herself clearly believes a convincing win in May will offer absolution from any failings exposed by the Salmond affair. “The scrutiny and the verdict of the people of Scotland,†she told parliament on Thursday, “[is] the verdict that matters most.â€
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