Nicola Sturgeon’s mum has revealed she is delighted to finally get her daughter back. Joan Sturgeon said she and husband Robin are proud of their girl’s achievements as Scotland’s First Minister but can’t wait until it is all over.
Former SNP councillor Joan, 70, said: “For the past few years, she has been Nicola the politician, who never switches off. Now, as a family, we get her back. We’re immensely proud of her. We’re all delighted. She’s done a brilliant job.”
Granny Joan, an ex-North Ayrshire Council provost, told how she met with her daughter after her resignation speech last Wednesday at Bute House in Edinburgh. In her speech, Sturgeon had said she was looking forward to more time with her family, including her niece and nephew – the children of her sister Gill, an NHS worker.
Joan said: “I saw her on Wednesday and she looked great. Better than she has. She’s happy and that’s what matters. She’s done such a good job for so long but now was the right time.”
Her resignation comes as publishing and PR experts said the Glasgow Southside MSP could make more than £1million when she leaves office, from book deals, speeches and celebrity appearances. The First Minister, who has kept a diary for most of her life and is a prolific reader, could command a six-figure advance for a tell-all book and would be a popular addition to any speakers’ circuit.
She could also try her hand at a TV talk show or cross the Atlantic to the US and make even more cash. London publishing consultant Janey Burton said: “I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Nicola Sturgeon had been offered six figures for an advance, say between £150,000 and £250,000.
“She wouldn’t get the kind of advance Barack Obama would get, or even Boris Johnson, because she is First Minister of a smaller country so less widely known but there would still be huge interest in a book.
"There will be agents ringing her office now trying to get meetings with her and they will be trying to get her as much money as they possibly can. I would be very surprised if the big publishers hadn’t tried to contact her already.”
While Sturgeon is unlikely to command the millions which former PM Theresa May or Johnson have raked in since their departures from office, she could still make a hefty sum on top of her regular MSP salary of £66,662. Serialisation of her book could earn her at least £50,000 and she could pocket fees of up to £15,000 for speaking engagements.
Her memoirs could outsell her rival and former mentor Alex Salmond’s literary efforts, according to Olivia Beattie, the editorial director at Biteback Publishing, which specialises in political books.
She said: “I’d be very surprised if her book didn’t outperform Alex Salmond’s. They would be different propositions, of course, because his was exclusively about IndyRef rather than a broader memoir but she also has far more widespread appeal, especially among women.”
Diane Banks, chief executive of Northbank Talent Management in London, said Sturgeon would also be in demand for after-dinner or corporate speaking events – or even hosting a talk show or a podcast. She said: “There’s always interest in outgoing leaders’ political memoirs.
If it was just a nice memoir of her time in office, I still think she could get a six- figure sum. If she did something which was a tell-all book involving, for example, the fall-out with Alex Salmond, she would get a higher six-figure sum.”
While Johnson has earned a reported £5million since leaving Downing Street and May has made about £2.5million from speaking engagements, Sturgeon would be unlikely to earn as much, Banks said.
She said: “Both Boris Johnson and Theresa May have done most of their talks in America and that’s where the big money is. I’m not sure how much of a market there would be for Nicola Sturgeon. There would be a small market but it’s more of a domestic market.
“For after-dinner speaking, she should be able to get between £10,000 and £15,000. I’d imagine she would be more popular on the speaking circuit for corporate client events and those with top-level executives.
“Corporates often book speakers for internal or client events and for those kinds of talks, she would be used as an explainer. The future of the union is a huge topic which would affect companies and business in different ways. We often book clients for those types of events. I’d imagine she would be quite popular if she wanted to do something like that.
“I think she would be good at after-dinner speeches as well if she wanted to do that. I don’t imagine she’d want to do a talk show but there would be interest if she did. Look at Jacob Rees-Mogg, he’s just got his own show on GB News.”
While Sturgeon may not want to follow in the footsteps of Rees-Mogg or former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson in taking up a hosting gig on TV or radio, she could make between £40,000 and £100,000 a year if she went down that route.
Salmond’s company made about £80,000 a year from his now-defunct show on Kremlin-backed TV channel Russia Today and the former first minister also received £15,000 for six months’ work hosting a weekly phone-in for radio station LBC.
She could copy ex-Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dudgdale, eccentric Tory MP Nadine Dorries or hapless ex-health secretary Matt Hancock and earn substantial cash on a reality TV show such as I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, or BBC’s Strictly.
Dorries took home £40,000 from her time in the jungle while Dugdale pocketed £45,000. Hancock earned a whopping £320,000 for abandoning his constituents to eat sheep and camel genitals.
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