Dave Thompson MSP

Sir,

After being nominated as SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon is set to become Scotland’s First Minister unopposed within the next few weeks. I am confident she is by far the best person to take our country forward.

Scotland is a different and more confident country after the referendum. I am as disappointed as any Yes supporter that we didn’t secure a majority for independence, but we now have the promise of significant new powers from Westminster.

Indeed, the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that these powers would be “as close as a federal state as is possible in the UK, and a “modern form of Scottish home rule”.

As Scotland’s first female First Minister, Ms Sturgeon will work hard to ensure that these promises are kept and that the signs of slippage we are already seeing from some Labour and Tory elected representatives are addressed and quickly halted.

As well as pushing for the best deal we can get for Scotland from the Westminster parties, she will also ensure that the welfare benefits and social protections we have won under seven years of popular SNP administration at Holyrood are safeguarded and developed.

Ms Sturgeon has been an MSP since the parliament was founded in 1999 and has been Deputy First Minister since 2007. She is uniquely qualified to take over from Alex Salmond, having impressed and earned praise in the challenging portfolios of health and infrastructure and during the referendum campaign, which she helped to lead. She also has the respect of MSPs right across the political divide.

Under Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland and its flourishing democracy will be in safe hands. I look forward to offering her my full support. I hope readers of your paper will feel able to do the same.

Yours sincerely

Dave Thompson

MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch