Whiff of scandal
The whiff of scandal around the missing messages is just the latest PR blow for Sturgeon — who is still beloved by many Scottish nationalists — and her legacy, and carries bleak implications for the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) she once led.
Not long after her shock resignation last February, Sturgeon was arrested alongside her husband Peter Murrell, the party’s former chief executive, in connection with a long-running police probe into SNP finances.
Both she and Murrell were released without charge and insist they did nothing wrong — but the investigation continues, and images of their home being raided by police are now seared into the public memory.
A new poll by Norstat that was featured prominently in the Sunday Times newspaper last weekend found a majority of Scots no longer trust Sturgeon, including one in four SNP supporters. It’s clear the ex-first minister no longer commands the magic touch she once held with Scottish voters.
“Few politicians have fallen so sharply in public esteem as Nicola Sturgeon,” said James Mitchell, an Edinburgh University politics professor and a prominent writer on the SNP.
“Accusations that the Sturgeon government was secretive, obsessed with spin and less interested in serious policy challenges, unless there was a constitutional advantage, had long been easily dismissed by the SNP’s impressive spin machine … but there’s no doubt that her reputation and that of the SNP in government is now assessed much more critically,” he added.
