Scotland’s former leader addresses conflict with Salmond and rumours of a lesbian affair, but stops short of full disclosure
W
hen the title of Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir, Frankly, was first announced, I had my doubts. Partly, of course, it was a touching nod to her late friend, the comic Janey Godley. Godley’s viral Twitter voiceovers of the first minister of Scotland’s press conferences always ended with the catchphrase: “Frank, get the door!”
As a reporter covering her decade in power, however, I’d always found her to be a master of the lengthy, lawyerly obfuscation and the disarming but consequence-free apology. Would she really engage with the questions that overshadowed the final years of her leadership until her shock resignation in 2023? Questions about Alex Salmond’s sexual harassment investigation, the Scottish government’s secrecy during the pandemic, the toxic legacy of her gender recognition reforms, the stalled delivery of some of her flagship policy pledges, not to mention independence itself. And what about that rumoured lesbian affair?
With her ex-husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, currently awaiting trial for alleged embezzlement of party funds, that topic is rendered conveniently off-limits under contempt of court rules. But that doesn’t mean readers will be able to dispel from their minds images of the famous blue police tent planted in her garden. Following her own arrest and release without charge in June 2023, she remained subject to investigation as part of the probe into SNP finances for almost two years. This book was written during those dark days (she was formally told there would be no further action in March this year).
