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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Chris McCall

Nicola Sturgeon set to address Scottish Parliament for last time as First Minister

Nicola Sturgeon will address the Scottish Parliament for the final time as First Minister today.

The out-going SNP leader will be quizzed by MSPs from noon at her last session of FMQs before she formally stands down next week.

She will also make a statement to the Scottish Parliament at 12.45pm to conclude her more than eight years in the top job in Scottish politics.

The race to succeed her as SNP leader ends at noon on Monday with a winner set to be announced that afternoon.

The winner - expected to be either Humza Yousaf or Kate Forbes - will then be formally appointed First Minister the following day.

Sturgeon faced her first FMQs as SNP leader the day after she succeeded Alex Salmond in November 2014.

She went on to become the dominant figure in Scottish politics and led her party to an unprecedented run of election wins at both Holyrood and Westminster.

But the race to succeed her has opened up serious divisions within the SNP and led to a number of high-profile figures standing down, including her husband Peter Murrell.

Sturgeon has twice in recent weeks been forced to deny her party was now in a state of civil war.

Although she has not formally endorsed a candidate to succeed her, nearly all her senior party colleagues have backed Yousaf.

The Nationalists have been led by just three people since 1990 - Alex Salmond in two spells, John Swinney, and Sturgeon - and now face a new uncertain era.

Yesterday, an emotional Nicola Sturgeon has given a “sincere, heartfelt and unreserved” apology to the thousands of women in Scotland who were forced to give up their babies for adoption.

In one of her last acts as First Minister, Sturgeon told MSPs: “The horror of what happened to these women is almost impossible to comprehend. It is the stuff of nightmares.”

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