The First Minister has stated in further addition to her resignation address that politics has taken its toll.
She addressed journalists gathered at her official Edinburgh residence that she had been “wrestling” with the question of her future for some weeks.
“The nature and form of modern political discourse means there is a much greater intensity – dare I say it brutality – to life as a politician than in years gone by.”
“Since my very first moments in the job, that part of serving well would be to know, almost instinctively when the time is right to make way for someone else, and when that time came, to have the courage to do, so across the country, and in my party it might feel too soon. In my head, and in my heart, I know that time is now.
‘That it is right for me, for my party, and for the country.”
She continued: “My point is this: giving absolutely everything of yourself to this job is the only way to do it. The country deserves nothing less. But in truth that can only be done by anyone for so long.
“For me it is now in danger of becoming too long.”
Nicola Sturgeon will continue on as First Minister until her successor is elected by the SNP. She will stay as an MSP until at least the next Holyrood election in May 2026, in her constituency in Glasgow Southside.
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