Nicola Sturgeon’s historic career as Scottish first minister will be remembered for the fight for Scottish independence and tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.
She will leave office as the longest-serving and first female first minister since the creation of the Scottish parliament in 1999.
Ms Sturgeon joined the Scottish National Party (SNP) at the age of 16 and rose through the ranks to take top billing after Alex Salmond stood down following the defeat in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and was voted in as first minister days later.
But now, Ms Sturgeon will stand down from the top post without realising her key political ambition – securing Scottish independence.
Ms Sturgeon’s historic leadership oversaw a challenging health crisis as she announced a string of restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Her government has also been facing criticism as the National Health Service (NHS) struggles to recover from the impact of the pandemic, with soaring waiting times in emergency departments.
Ms Sturgeon’s main political ambition was to lead Scotland to independence – but after the UK supreme court ruled last year that Holyrood could not lawfully legislate on the constitutional issue, her party will meet next month to discuss treating the next UK election as a “de facto referendum”.
In recent weeks, legislation from her government which pushed through controversial gender reforms has taken centre stage in Ms Sturgeon’s long political career.
The UK government blocked the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Act which made it easier to self-identify as a chosen gender.
And the housing of transgender prisoners in the female estate has exacerbated the issue.
With a political career spanning nearly three decades, the first minister has said it is the right time for her to step aside.
Since she assumed the role, she has worked with five different British prime ministers.
❤️ Thank you @NicolaSturgeon.#ThankYouNicola pic.twitter.com/MCVVCnKsI6
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Following her school years at Greenwood Academy, in Irvine, North Ayrshire from 1982 to 1988, she went on to study law at Glasgow University.
She moved up the ranks in her party following this, standing as the youngest ever parliamentary candidate in the 1992 general election for the Glasgow Shettleston constituency, followed by a further failed attempt in the Glasgow Govan constituency in 1997.
But, in 1999, Ms Sturgeon was elected to the Scottish parliament on the Glasgow regional list and until 2007, when she took the Glasgow Govan – now Glasgow Southside – constituency.
In an interview with BBC’s Woman’s Hour, Ms Sturgeon revealed it was former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher that inspired her into politics due a “strong feeling that it was wrong for Scotland to be governed by a Tory government that we hadn’t elected”.
Ms Sturgeon would go on to become one of the most prominent voices within the SNP, first putting her name in the hat for the leadership race in 2004 following John Swinney’s resignation.
But Alex Salmond announced his intention to stand for the post, with Ms Sturgeon becoming his running mate.
In 2007, her party formed a minority government in Scotland, when Sturgeon was appointed as Scotland's deputy first minister and health secretary.
In her years as health secretary, she oversaw the scrapping of prescription charges and received praise for her handling of the 2009 swine flu crisis.
