After years of popularity and electoral success, several problems emerged in the last few months of Nicola Sturgeon's tenure as First Minister.
The SNP has been almost untouchable throughout Sturgeon’s reign - emerging as the largest party in eight different elections under her leadership.
Less than a year after she became First Minister, the Nationalists achieved a landslide result in Scotland at the 2015 General Election, picking up 56 of the 59 seats.
Although they lost some seats in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, 2017 general election and 2017 council elections, they remained the biggest party by some distance.
The SNP would go on to gain seats in the 2019 European elections, 2019 general election, 2021 Scottish election and 2022 council elections.
And so much of their success was down to Sturgeon. Her communication skills during the covid pandemic won praise.
But Sturgeon’s plan for independence hasn’t gone smoothly.
She suffered the knockback of the Supreme Court ruling and faced criticism for her plan to use the next general election as a de facto independence referendum.
It has divided opinion in the party so much that the SNP are holding a special conference next month to hammer out their strategy.
The gender recognition reform has not been great for her either. The UK Government’s blocking of the bill initially caused an increase in support for independence, but the Isla Bryson and Tiffany Scott cases have hampered Sturgeon’s reputation.
The recent strikes have also caused her problems. The Scottish Government has been criticised for not giving higher pay offers to various professions and for not preventing disruption.
On top of this, Ian Blackford was reportedly ousted as the SNP’s Westminster leader in December.
Alison Thewliss, who is said to be close to Sturgeon, was beaten by 34-year-old Stephen Flynn in the contest to replace Blackford.
Flynn had already shown himself as willing to go against Sturgeon. He said that the Cambo oil field should go ahead if it meets climate requirements when Sturgeon said it “shouldn’t get the green light”.
Flynn also said that gender recognition should be treated as a conscience issue when it comes to votes on the topic, which again seems to contradict Sturgeon’s view.
With the problems mounting up, Sturgeon decided it was time to go.
Independence strategy
Sturgeon set out her pathway to independence in the Scottish Parliament in June last year. Her plan was to hold a referendum on October 19 this year and she decided to go to the Supreme Court to determine whether the Scottish Parliament could hold its own referendum.
She also said that she would turn the next general election into a de facto referendum if the Supreme Court case did not go her way.
The court ruled against the Scottish Parliament holding its own referendum without Westminster approval in November.
She then said that the SNP would go ahead with using the next general election as a de facto referendum.
This was criticised by opponents as a general election is not fought on one issue.
Party members were also unhappy, with Glasgow South MP Stewart McDonald warning that the tactic would not secure independence.
A survey from earlier this week also showed that less than half of those who voted SNP in 2019 were in favour of using the next general election as a de facto referendum.
Sturgeon then suggested last month that the next Holyrood election, which is set to take place in 2026, could be used as a de facto referendum.
The SNP will decide its strategy at a special conference next month.
Gender recognition reform
The issue of self-identification for transgender people has divided opinion among voters for a long time, but the issue has come to a head in recent months.
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament in March.
The proposed legislation would allow people to obtain a gender recognition certificate without the need for a medical diagnosis.
It would also lower the minimum age for applicants to 16. It drops the time required for an applicant to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months but with a three-month reflection period.
Several SNP MSPs voted against the bill at every stage, with community safety minister Ash Regan resigning because she believed the bill “may have negative implications for the safety and dignity of women and girls.”
The bill passed with support from all parties in December, but Scottish Secretary Alister Jack used a Section 35 order to prevent it from becoming law last month. Jack said that it breached the UK-wide Equalities Act.
Since then, Sturgeon came under fire after two transgender rapists, Isla Bryson and Tiffany Scott, were placed in women’s prison despite committing the offences when they were men.
Bryson and Scott were both moved to male prisons after a public outcry.
Husband's loan to SNP
In December, it emerged that Nicola Sturgeon’s husband and SNP chief executive Peter Murrell had lent the party over £100,000 to help with “cashflow” after the Holyrood election.
The “personal contribution” was recorded on an election watchdog’s website.
According to the Electoral Commission, the £107,620 loan was made on June 20, 2021.
The Scottish Tories called for answers on why Murrell had made such a large loan "to the party his wife leads".
Labour MSP Neil Bibby called the situation ”highly irregular” and called for Sturgeon’s part in providing the loans to be further investigated.”
He added that “The saga surrounding the SNP’s finances just keeps getting murkier” and accused the SNP of operating “under a veil of secrecy and cover-up by default”.
An SNP spokesperson said: “The loan was reported in our 2021 accounts, which were published by the Electoral Commission in mid-August. The nature of this transaction was initially not thought to give rise to a reporting obligation.
“However, as it had been recorded in the party's 2021 accounts as a loan, it was accordingly then reported to the Electoral Commission as a regulated transaction. This was a personal contribution made by the chief executive to assist with cashflow after the Holyrood election.”
Strikes
Like leaders in other parts of the UK, Nicola Sturgeon has struggled to deal with strike action over the past few months.
Scottish school teachers voted to strike in November after rejecting a five per cent pay offer. The EIS trade union wanted a 10 per cent increase.
Members of the union walked out for one day in November and two days in January. They then took part in a 16-day programme of rolling strike action and will walk out for an additional 22 days between the end of February and mid-April.
They were offered a new pay deal earlier this week but it was rejected.
Nurses voted overwhelmingly to strike in December after rejecting a 7.5 per cent pay offer but the industrial action was halted after negotiations began.
Scots firefighters also voted decisively for strike action last month. It will be the first UK-wide walk out by firefighters on wages in two decades and may lead to the army being drafted in.
The SNP also came under fire earlier this month when its members crossed the picket line while Scottish Parliament staff went on strike.
Green and Labour MSPs did not cross the picket line, with Monica Lennon saying it was "the height of hypocrisy" for SNP MSPs not to stand alongside the striking workers.
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