Nicola Sturgeon's Biography
Her father was an electrician and her mother was a dental nurse.
Nicola Sturgeon joined the Scotish Nationalist Party (SNP) when she was just 16 years old.
She was educated at Greenwood Academy, and studied law at the University of Glasgow.
Nicola Sturgeon was the youngest candidate in the 1992 general election, standing for the SNP in the safe Labour seat of Glasgow Shettleston.
She also came second to Labour after being selected to fight Glasgow Govan in the general election of 1997.
She had been working in a civil law firm in Glasgow, but then worked as a solicitor in the Drumchapel Law and Money Advice Centre in Glasgow.
In 1999, the Scottish Parliament was created and Nicola Sturgeon stood again in Govan, and again came second to the Labour candidate, but was elected an MSP under proportional representation via Glasgow’s regional list.
She was MSP for Govan between 2007 and 2011 and after boundary changes the MSP for Glasgow Southside.
From 2004 to 2014, she was Alex Salmond's deputy and became Scotland's Deputy First Minister.
When Alex Salmond resigned as the SNP's leader after the failed referendum for Scottish independence, Nicola Sturgeon took the helm unopposed.
In 2010 she had married Peter Murrell, the SNP’s chief executive.
In February 2023, she announced that she would be standing down as SNP leader and Scotland's first minister.
The following month Peter Murrell resigned as the SNP's Chief Executive, after a controversy over misleading membership figures being given to the media. In his statement, he asserted that there had been no attempt to mislead, but acknowledged that it had happened.
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