No one expected it when Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon abruptly announced her resignation on 15 February. “A no-nonsense woman whom the Scots saw as one of us,” is how British correspondent Lia van Bekhoven calls her. “A strong communicator who has handled the corona pandemic so well that most Brits would have liked to trade her for their Prime Minister Boris Johnson.”
“Almost at the same time as his resignation, the police were investigating the £600,000 missing from the party coffers.”
But it seemed to be too much for her. “The office has taken a toll on her as a person and on her energy,” says British correspondent Lia van Bekhoven. “Everyone immediately thought of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who had also resigned a few months earlier.”
Not as innocent as it seemed
But several months later, we know the departure wasn’t as innocent as it seemed. “Almost at the same time, the police were investigating the £600,000 missing from the party treasury,” says Van Bekhoven on the “Van Bekhoven’s Brits” podcast. “That sum was raised once for a second independence referendum in 2017, in the aftermath of Brexit, but it never happened.” A luxury RV was also impounded from Sturgeon’s mother-in-law.
Van Bekhoven points out that no one is claiming Sturgeon pocketed the money. “But something else definitely happened to him. This is potentially illegal. If you said you will use it for a second referendum, you must.’ Earlier this month, Sturgeon was arrested, interrogated for seven hours and then released without charge. Her husband was also arrested.
Other complaints too
“That case must be one of the reasons she resigned,” Van Bekhoven believes, “although Sturgeon himself denies it.” The correspondent calls Sturgeon’s fall as impressive as that of his London counterpart, Boris Johnson.
Other grievances also surface with his resignation and Sturgeon appears to have left a divided Scotland. “The problem was that he was constantly campaigning for independence,” Van Bekhoven said. It was more important to her than Brexit or the economy. You have sown discord. Some Scots wanted to name an airport after her. Others crossed the road when they saw it.’
One-party state of Scotland
Under her, the SNP, the Scottish Nationalist Party, also became increasingly dominant in Scottish politics. “Alternative views became increasingly difficult in the party. Those who were not in favor of independence were against Scotland. And at the same time she has never been able to deliver on many promises in education and the economy.’
On the other hand, “it has managed to make Scotland’s independence a realistic option”, says Van Bekhoven, “convinced that the region, like Ireland, can best manage on its own.
Yet that scenario now seems further away than ever. According to a recent poll by The Sunday Times newspaper, Labor would win more seats in Scotland than the nationalist SNP in the next election. And that party does not want to hear about a secession from the United Kingdom. Van Bekhoven calls it nothing less than a “political landslide”.
Listen to Van Bekhoven’s Brits podcast