Nicola Sturgeon has finally resigned after eight years as First Minister where she obsessed about independence and never focused fully on the people’s priorities.
The outgoing SNP leader will not be missed. She created huge divisions in our country. She governed by splitting people into rival camps and fostering resentment between friends, families and communities.
Hopefully, the decade of division in Scotland ends with Nicola Sturgeon. We have a golden opportunity now to unite, come together and move on as one Scotland.
The next First Minister must govern for the whole country. They must act in the national not the nationalist interest. They must reset the relationship with businesses, which was destroyed by Nicola Sturgeon’s anti-growth agenda.
Most of all, the next leader of the country must adopt a different approach to working with the UK Government. They must work constructively with the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack.
They must set aside the SNP’s obsession with another referendum and focus all their attention on delivering better public services and improving the lives of the people of Scotland. That will only happen if they stop picking fights with the UK Government and start focusing on what we can achieve together.
For the good of Scotland, we need a First Minister that focuses relentlessly on the huge challenges we’re facing.
But, as it stands, I don’t think we’re likely to get a new SNP leader who takes a different approach. The three candidates for the top job have already shown their true colours.
The frontrunner, Humza Yousaf, has already said he will seek to ramp up the SNP’s demands for another divisive referendum. He has been clear that he will take the UK Government to court over the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill.
His main rival, Kate Forbes, wants to make independence the epicentre of her campaign. And the outsider, Ash Regan, is making uniting the pro-independence movement the main pitch of her leadership bid.
It seems that no matter who wins, Scotland loses. The SNP’s focus will once again be 100% on splitting up Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom. The deep divisions that Nicola Sturgeon scarred our country with may even grow.
That’s why we, as Scottish Conservatives, must now step up our efforts and turbo-charge our campaigning, so that we can finally remove the SNP from office altogether.