Nicola Sturgeon has insisted the SNP is “not in a mess” but is going through “growing pains” as she enters her final week as first minister.
The SNP leader appeared on ITV’s Loose Women in one of her final television appearances before she steps down as first minister on March 27.
She defended her party after her husband Peter Murrell stepped down as chief executive and Dundonian Murray Foote resigned as communications chief in a row over membership numbers.
The first minister now says she is keen to find out who Nicola Sturgeon “the person” is as she moves into this next chapter in her life.
SNP going through ‘growing pains’
Over the weekend the party’s interim chief executive Mike Russell said the SNP is in a “tremendous mess”.
His remarks come after the SNP confirmed last week the membership had fallen from 104,000 two years ago to 72,186.
Mr Foote, the SNP’s media chief, resigned on Friday after reports about membership figures which the party denied turned out to be true.
This was closely followed by Mr Murrell’s resignation on Saturday, who said there was “no intent to mislead” over the figures.
Ms Sturgeon was grilled on this issue and said it had been “mishandled”.
She said Mr Russell was referring to the SNP leadership and not the party when he said it was a “mess” and said the “growing pains” the party is going through are “necessary but difficult”.
Ms Sturgeon said: “We were asked a specific question of ‘have you lost 30,000 members because of x and y?’, and we answered in that sense.
“We should have framed it in a bigger way.”
She also said it was right for her husband to take responsibility for the matter and said the party would reflect on the fall-out.
Decision to quit
During her Loose Women appearance, she also explained in more detail why she decided to step down from the top job.
She said: “Looking back I had probably been coming to the decision subconsciously for quite a while, certainly from the tail end of last year.
“I was then watching the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern make her statement, and I remember thinking ‘I wish it was me’.
“That’s when it went from subconscious to conscious and then I realised it was the right time for me.”
Ms Sturgeon, who has been first minister for the last eight years, added there is such a thing as being in frontline politics for too long and said change is a good thing in a democracy.
She also refuted claims she stepped down because of the backlash to the gender reform bill, which was passed by the Scottish Parliament at the end of 2022 and subsequently blocked by the UK Government.
‘I have not begun to process that’
Ms Sturgeon also spoke more about her personal experiences in leading the country, including the mental toll of the coronavirus pandemic and her miscarriage.
When asked about her miscarriage she said there is a photograph of her at an event while it is happening where she is “in a lot of pain”.
She said: “You just bury it, you don’t deal with it and process it.
“I have been doing that to one extent or another for all my adult life.”
Janet Street Porter asked if she would consider seeing a counsellor once she steps down as first minister.
She said she wouldn’t be rushing to go and see one, but admitted she has not begun to process the experience of the pandemic.
Ms Sturgeon said: “I went – and I am not complaining because my job was not the most difficult at all – but I went a year every day speaking to the country.
“I didn’t take a single day off and I have not begun to process that.”
She also said she will not be appearing on reality TV shows such as I’m a Celebrity and Strictly Come Dancing – and asked the Loose Women panellists to hold her to that commitment.
FM has ‘checked out’ already
Following her interview the Scottish Conservatives said the interview shows she has “mentally checked out” of Bute House already.
Meghan Gallacher, the party’s deputy leader, said: “As she heads off into the sunset, the first minister – along with her husband – leave a trail of destruction in their wake for the SNP and the country.
“How she can deny her party is in a mess is mind-boggling, given her departure has sparked a brutal civil war.”
Ms Gallacher added the SNP leadership contest has seen her record in government “trashed” and the whole of Scotland is suffering as real priorities are being ignored.
The new first minister is expected to be announced on Monday March 27.
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