JOANNA CHERRY: She’s promised to tell the unadorned truth… but will Nicola Sturgeon’s book answer any of the embarrassing questions that REALLY matter? Frankly, I doubt it
It’s billed as the ‘revelatory’ memoir of Scotland’s first female First Minister, the inside story of almost a decade at the top of government.
Nicola Sturgeon’s autobiography, Frankly, arrives in bookshops on Thursday – with the first extract published last night – and speculation about its contents are rife.
What will my former party leader reveal about her time in power? What secrets will she share? There are certainly questions – from both Nationalist and Unionist Scots – that demand answers.
But just how frank is Ms Sturgeon willing to be? Will she – can she? – reflect honestly on the failings of her leadership?
Here are just some of the issues I hope – forlornly, I’m sure – she’ll address in her memoir.
Parents and young people across Scotland will want to know why, having staked her reputation on closing the attainment gap, she failed to do so and now never talks of it.
NHS patients will want to understand why, when waiting lists are so long, the health service appears to have limitless funds to employ clueless managerial staff and to defend hopeless cases caused by their ineptitude.
Island dwellers will want to know why, despite millions spent on two new vessels, the ferry service in our island nation is so unreliable while Highlanders will want to know why, despite the promises made by Ms Sturgeon’s administration, the A9 has still not been duelled.
Joanna Cherry and Nicola Sturgeon in June 2017, just a week before the general election
Nicola Sturgeon quit as Scottish First Minister in 2023
Families and pensioners living in fuel poverty in one of the most energy rich nations in the world will want to know what happened to the national energy company she promised to set up in 2017 in order to lower their bills.
The Welsh Government has managed to do this. Why didn’t Ms Sturgeon deliver for Scotland?
And many women and LGB people will want to know why she was happy to throw our rights under the bus in the name of identity politics.
I wonder whether Ms Sturgeon will feel able to address the way in which she failed to advance the independence case, despite having inherited from Alex Salmond record levels of support for our cause.
Independence supporters will want to know why, despite repeated promises, Ms Sturgeon was unable to deliver another referendum. And those who donated to fundraisers in advance of that frequently-promised second vote on the constitutional question will want to know why she showed little interest in what had happened to their money and actively sought to close down anyone who asked difficult questions.
The SNP activists who give so much to the party and the cause of independence will be curious to learn whether Ms Sturgeon has insights into why membership has plummeted over recent years and why, despite support for independence sitting at around 50 per cent, only 35 per cent of people say they’ll vote SNP at next year’s Holyrood election.
And the 38 SNP MPs who lost their seats at last year’s general election will, no doubt, be interested to learn why they had to pay the price for mistakes she made.
And everyone – regardless of their politics – will, I’m sure, be eager to learn what Ms Sturgeon considers to be her legacy.
What lasting difference has she made to Scottish society, and has it been good or bad?
Are the Child Payment – important as it is – the baby box and the expansion in free childcare the height of her legacy?
Are those achievements really all there is to show for more than eight years in charge (and for all those election victories)? In her resignation speech, Ms Sturgeon described herself as a divisive figure. How did that come about?
Does she think Scotland is a more or less united country than when she came to power?
If less, does she take any responsibility for that?
Ms Sturgeon’s resignation came in the aftermath of a huge public backlash against plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act, allowing anyone to self-identify into the legally-recognised sex of their choosing.
Why, I continue to wonder, did she put more energy into identity politics than the cause of independence? Was she planning for self-identification to be her legacy and how does it feel for that legacy to be in tatters?
Despite Brexit and the unlawful prorogation of parliament by Boris Johnson’s chaotic administration that followed, Ms Sturgeon failed to advance the cause of independence one iota.
A leader of the strategic calibre of her mentor Alex Salmond would have been able to capitalise on these amazing opportunities.
Instead, Ms Sturgeon slowly reversed the SNP’s independence strategy up a blind alley.
Joanna Cherry was the SNP MP for Edinburgh South West
She repeatedly promised a second referendum she knew she could not deliver, issuing a never- ending list of dates and targets which were missed.
She marched her troops up and down the hill until many of them deserted in disgust. When some party members and parliamentarians suggested she might need a Plan B rather than repeatedly banging her head on the brick wall of the British government’s refusal to grant permission for a second referendum, she demonised us and encouraged her lackeys to attack us.
Why did she refuse to countenance or discuss a legal strategy which might have delivered competent Scottish parliament legislation on a referendum? Why did she go cap in hand to the UK Supreme Court in a manner and at a time when anyone with an iota of legal nous could have advised her she was going to lose.
Then, having spent years shutting down the idea of a de facto referendum – and with her back against the wall – why did she announce she would be treating the 2024 general election as a de facto referendum without any discussion with colleagues about the pros and cons of such a move?
On that issue of shutting people down, Ms Sturgeon should explain why, during her period as leader, she was so keen to quash any attempts at scrutiny of the SNP’s finances by those – including members of the party’s national executive committee –elected to do just that.
When questions were raised as to the whereabouts of £600,000 raised from independence supporters for a second referendum with the promises it would be ring fenced, why did she say there was no problem and prevent those questions from being answered?
Does she now realise that most of the people who donated to these funds were people who, unlike herself and her estranged husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, live on tight budgets and are entitled to know what has happened to their hard-earned money?
Why did Ms Sturgeon let things get so bad that we ended up with a criminal investigation in which she was a suspect and, following which, Murrell was charged with embezzlement?
If I may get personal for a moment, I’d like to read an explanation as to why SNP rules were changed on Ms Sturgeon’s watch to make it so difficult for me as a Westminster MP to challenge Angus Robertson for the Edinburgh Central constituency nomination at the Scottish parliament.
It’s easier for MPs to do this at the forthcoming Scottish election which leaves me wondering why was she so afraid of me entering the Scottish parliament and what was it that she owed Angus that he had to be guaranteed such an easy ride on his path to Holyrood?
Ms Sturgeon promises to tell all in her book about her relationship with the late Alex Salmond, the politician to whom she owes so much.
After an appallingly handled investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, Alex was later charged with a number of historic offences only for a predominantly female jury to acquit him.
If, nevertheless, Ms Sturgeon wants us to accept that he was guilty of inappropriate behaviour to all of these complainers who included civil servants, SNP parliamentarians and SNP officials, perhaps she can explain how she knew nothing about it despite working so closely with him for years?
Ms Sturgeon previously told parliament that she knew nothing about any concerns until April 2018 but then she had to apologise and correct the record when it came to light that she had actually found out in March 2018.
How did someone with such a reputation for a good command of detail make this mistake?
Surely, if she knew nothing, the revelation of the allegations must have been a terrible shock, one which she might be expected to remember.
Why did her government continue to oppose the judicial review of the investigation process brought by Alex Salmond for so long and spend so much public money on it when they had independent legal advice that they were on course to lose?
Nicola Sturgeon’s book, Frankly, is released this month
Why have she and current First Minister John Swinney fought so hard against any Freedom of Information requests relating to circumstances surrounding the investigation?
Ms Sturgeon’s energy for going after Alex was not replicated when it came to other SNP parliamentarians and officials who faced complaints of sexual harassment and bullying. To many it seems as though the party’s complaints procedure was only deployed when it could be weaponised against her enemies.
If that is not the case, then can she explain why it was used so sparingly against others?
I – and others, I am certain –would like to read Ms Sturgeon’s explanation of what she knew about an infamous WhatsApp group in which senior SNP officials, including Peter Murrell, discussed how best to build a case against Alex Salmond?
To many, it looks very much like she – and they – were terrified Alex might make one of his famous comebacks after he was one of 21 Nationalist MPs who lost their seats in the 2017 general election and that a plan was lodged to smear him which got out of control and ended up in a trial in which he was acquitted. Many close to Alex also think what happened contributed to his untimely death.
I wonder how Ms Sturgeon feels about that.
And on the subject of WhatsApp messages, why did she delete all of hers, sent and received during the first part of the pandemic, having previously promised to keep them?
If her actions were in accordance with government policy how come Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf kept all their messages?
Could it be the reason why she and her close confidantes deleted all their WhatsApps is because what they were talking about was not the consequences of the lockdown announced on March 23, 2020, but the fallout from the acquittal of Alex Salmond which occurred on the same date?
Each question prompts another: Why was her government so keen to abolish jury trials for the duration of the Covid crisis?
Were they at all influenced by their fury at Alex Salmond’s acquittal?
Likewise, why were they so keen to suspend Freedom of Information legislation throughout lockdown? Was that about hiding what was going on behind the scenes in relation to the Salmond affair?
When she resigned in 2023, Nicola Sturgeon recognised – in a rare moment on self awareness –that her obsession with self-ID had played its part in forcing her hand.
After years as the ‘selfie queen’, she found herself at odds with the great majority of Scots who know that a woman is an adult human female, a category that doesn’t include anyone born male.
I wonder whether, with the benefit of hindsight, she has any regrets about the behaviour of the committee which oversaw the passage of the GRR Bill and of the MSPs who opposed so many safeguarding amendments?
Is she proud of their partisanship? Does she think it showed our national parliament working well for the people of Scotland?
Why, having styled herself Scotland’s first feminist, was she so reluctant to listen to the concerns of many feminists about the impact of self ID legislation on women and girls?
Joanna Cherry with Nicola Sturgeon on the campaign trail
Joanna Cherry has questioned why Nicola Sturgeon deleted WhatsApp messages from the first part of the pandemic amid the fallout of the Alex Salmond trial
Why did she allow women, including parliamentarians like myself and the former MSP Joan McAlpine, to be targeted and abused by misogynistic young men in the SNP?
Why did she ignore legal advice in order to allow party rules to be gerrymandered to ensure Joan would not be re-elected?
Why did she put a target on my back by branding me a transphobe and sacking me from my frontbench role?
Why – I would dearly love to know – when a party member was convicted of threatening to rape me did she refuse to condemn his actions?
Why, despite my complaints, did she take no action to tackle the culture of bullying and harassment that flourished in the Westminster SNP Group? Perhaps the abuse and harassment of women with whom she disagrees is considered acceptable.
The case of nurse Sandie Peggie brings into sharp focus the foolishness of Sturgeon’s crusade to introduce self-ID.
Mrs Peggie, a nurse of 30 years’ unblemished service, was forced to take legal action after her employers, NHS Fife, launched an investigation into her after she complained about the presence of a trans-identifying male doctor in the female changing room at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital.
Does Ms Sturgeon realise this is her doing? During her reign as First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon styled herself an LGBT ally.
However, back in 1999 she initially sat on the fence about the repeal of Section 28.
Will she use Frankly to tell us when she was converted to the cause of gay rights or is it just the ‘T’ she cares about?
Does her past lack of interest in lesbian and gay rights perhaps explain her failure to appreciate the impact of self-identification on the rights of same sex attracted people and her willingness to countenance the absurdity that men can be lesbians?
Ms Sturgeon resigned in February 2023, having told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg just a few weeks earlier that she had plenty left in the tank.
Within weeks, a police tent had been erected outside her house, and she was a suspect in a criminal investigation. Was it this investigation, together with the humiliation she suffered when her independence strategy finally hit the buffers in the Supreme Court, that made her go?
Or was the tipping point the ridicule heaped upon her head when she was unable to say whether the rapist Adam Graham/Isla Bryson was a man or a woman?
I very much doubt the answers to any of these questions will be in Nicola Sturgeon’s autobiography.
However other memoirs – including one on which I am currently working – will shortly be available.
■ Joanna Cherry is the former SNP MP for Edinburgh South West
