Nicola Sturgeon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nicola Sturgeon MSP

Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP)
In office September 3, 2004 – present
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Constituency	Glasgow (Scottish Parliament)

Born	19 July 1970 Irvine, Scotland
Political party	Scottish National Party

Nicola Sturgeon (born on 19 July 1970 in Irvine, North Ayrshire) is a Scottish politician and current Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP). She was active in the SNP student wing through Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association whilst studying law at the University of Glasgow.

In 1992 she stood in the Glasgow Shettleston constituency, and was the youngest parliamentary candidate in Scotland, in the UK general election.

The 1997 general election saw Sturgeon selected to fight the Glasgow Govan seat for the SNP. Boundary changes meant that the notional Labour majority in the seat had increased substantially; however, infighting between the two rival candidates for the Labour nomination, Mohammed Sarwar and Mike Watson, along with an energetic local campaign, resulted in Glasgow Govan being the only UK seat to see a swing away from Labour in the midst of a Labour landslide UK-wide.

She was elected to the Scottish Parliament to represent Glasgow in 1999 and re-elected in 2003.

On June 24, 2004, Nicola Sturgeon announced that she would be a candidate in the forthcoming election for the leadership of the Scottish National Party. However, when Alex Salmond announced three weeks later his intention to seek the SNP leadership, Sturgeon withdrew from the contest and declared her support for Salmond, standing instead for the Deputy Leadership. On September 3, 2004 both she and Salmond were elected.

As Salmond is not currently an MSP, Sturgeon will lead the SNP at Holyrood until the 2007 election, in which Salmond has pledged to stand.