The end of Nicola Sturgeon’s dream for Scotland? SNP plans to ‘quietly drop’ her legacy

Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish political dream appears to be dying less than 24 hours after her surprise resignation as First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party.

Senior SNP officials have revealed that they plan to scrap their flagship gender recognition reform bill that would allow teens to transition from the age of 16.

The highly controversial Holyrood Act was vetoed by Westminster under takeback legislation and a legal challenge brought by Ms Sturgeon will be stayed. reported the telegraph.

At the same time, unionists hailed his departure as a “generational setback” for the independence movement, with a Conservative minister saying it was the best day since the 2014 referendum.

Around 250 union supporters flocked to George Square in Glasgow last night to celebrate the Prime Minister’s departure, and could be seen waving Union Jack flags, popping bottles of champagne and even forming a conga line.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn suggested this morning that the party’s planned conference to discuss the next steps in its push for Scottish independence could now be delayed.

Up to five SNP figures are expected to step forward to replace Ms Sturgeon in what could be a bloody fight between her close allies and more socially conservative figures.

A man known as ‘Glasgow Cabbie’ opens a bottle of champagne with union supporters at a gathering organized by ‘Expose Scotland’ in George Square

The SNP’s National Executive Committee will meet tonight to define the terms of a leadership campaign that is expected to last two to three months.

The prime minister had vowed to uphold gender legislation after Westminster enacted never-before-used powers to block his bid to facilitate gender change in Scotland.

Holyrood has until mid-April to challenge London’s decision, but the race to replace Strugeon is likely to drag on until at least that deadline, casting serious doubt on hopes of reviving the policy, even if it’s not abandoned. officially.

An SNP source told the Telegraph: ‘We need to get back on track by going after things that are important to the people of Scotland, not pushing things that are vehemently opposed by the public.

‘I hope the gender reforms get parked somewhere as quickly as possible. Any sensible new leader will want to get that out of the front pages, and quickly.

Resigning now means that you will avoid filing a legal challenge that you are likely to lose, or not raising any objection at all, which would have severely weakened your position.

Ms Sturgeon insisted yesterday that the dispute over the plan, approved by the Scottish parliament in December, was not the last straw that led to her resignation, even though it deepened divisions within her party.

The SNP’s national executive committee is expected to meet on Thursday to discuss the timing of a leadership contest.

SNP Chairman Michael Russell has said he hopes that process will be “shortened” and there will be a “contested election.”

Although there is no obvious candidate to succeed the outgoing Prime Minister, potential candidates include: Foreign Secretary Angus Robertson; Finance Secretary Kate Forbes; Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and Deputy Prime Minister John Swinney.

The Labor Party was last night looking to capitalize on the shock resignation of Nicola Sturgeon in the hope that it would help Sir Keir Starmer get to Downing Street.

abour were looking to capitalize last night on Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation in the hope that it would help Sir Keir Starmer get to Downing Street

Since the 2015 general election, when it lost 40 of its 41 MPs north of the border, Labor has largely remained in the political wilderness of Scotland.

He won seven seats in the 2017 election, but this plummeted to one again in 2019 when Sturgeon aspired to left-wing voters trying to stop a pro-Brexit Tory party from winning Westminster. Conservative seats in Scotland fell from 13 in 2017 to six in 2019.

But Mrs Sturgeon’s departure potentially leaves the door open for a Labor return in Scotland, helping the party win a majority and the keys to number 10 at the next election, which is likely to be in the autumn of next year.

A Labor MP with knowledge of the party’s Scottish strategy said: “There are some seats where the Tories are capable of coming back, but Labor is shaping up to be the biggest beneficiary given the number of seats where Labor has historically been represented.” .

‘The SNP infighting is now making it almost unmanageable for them to maintain the success that Sturgeon had and we will try to exploit that.

“Sturgeon may be hoping to calm him down by resigning, but the SNP’s problems run much deeper.” One message they can try to drive home, the MP added, was that voting for a Labor government in Westminster would be a quicker and easier way to overthrow the ‘hated’ Tory government than trying to secure another independence referendum, winning it and then apply to rejoin the European Union.

Another Labor figure said: “We were already on the upward trajectory and [Scottish Labour leader] Anas Sarwar is seen as a credible insurgent and this helps enormously.” A third senior party official told Politico: ‘Politics is about seizing decisive moments. We intend to seize this.

Sir Keir is due to address the Scottish Labor Party’s annual conference on Sunday, when he will declare his party a government in waiting. Sarwar and Ian Murray, the only Scottish Labor MP, will give speeches on Friday and Saturday.