Nicola Sturgeon: 'I had more attention to detail' than Alex Salmond

The former first minister said she did the “heavy lifting” of running the government under Mr Salmond, in a series of explosive claims in a new interview. She said she “could count on one hand” the number of times she had “detailed” conversations with him about the NHS.

Ms Sturgeon made the comments in an interview with the Institute for Government, where she reflected on what she learned from her predecessor and the days after the 2014 independence referendum.

“I learned a lot of very positive things from Alex,” Ms Sturgeon said. “He was my mentor for much of my political career.

“I learned a lot about campaigning for him. I learned a lot about governing from him, although when we were in government together, I think it’s probably fair to say that a lot of the heavy lifting and very detailed work of government fell to me and John Swinney.

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“I’m not trying to rewrite history, most of it was good - as anybody will from somebody they have watched in a job, you learn things to try and emulate, but you also learn things that you should try to do differently.”

Ms Sturgeon described her leadership as “more of a micromanager” compared to Mr Salmond.

She said: “How I would describe it is I’ve got more of an attention to detail. I like to have more of a sense of what’s happening and a grip on what’s happening.

“Alex tended to be a bigger picture [thinker] and leave a lot of the detailed work to other people, which at the time was good because he trusted me.

“I think in my five-and-a-half years as health secretary, I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of detailed conversations I had with Alex about problems in the health service, because he trusted me to get on with it.”

Ms Sturgeon said she put “more emphasis on social policy” such as expanding free childcare and introducing the Scottish Child Payment rather than on economic policy during her time in charge.

In the interview, the Glasgow Southside MSP also reflected on the independence campaign, claiming the SNP Government was “exceptionally prepared” for a Yes victory - but conceded “it would have been a tough process”.

She said: “I think we were as prepared as it was possible to be. The white paper, which people can and do argue over the substance of, was probably the most substantial blueprint for constitutional change, certainly in a UK context, that there’s ever been.

“Probably my saddest task on the day after the referendum was to go into the floor of St Andrew’s House where the transition team all sat at their desks with nothing to do.

“We had a whole team across all of the different areas of government ready to jump into action had the vote gone the other way. In the final few days, there was a reasonable sense that it might have done.”

Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond fell out after the latter was accused of sexual harassment by two female civil servants in 2018.

The complaints were made after Ms Sturgeon ordered a new sexual harassment policy be implemented in government. The Scottish Government later admitted it had acted unlawfully and had to pay Mr Salmond’s £500,000 in legal fees following a court ruling.

In 2019 Mr Salmond was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and he was cleared of all 13 charges a year later. Mr Salmond died in October last year.

In response to the interview, Scottish Conservatives deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: “Nicola Sturgeon has some brass neck making these claims. The former first minister is displaying a stunning lack of self-awareness and must think Scots are buttoned up the back.

“They won’t forget her industrial scale deletion of WhatsApps during the pandemic or how she conveniently forgot key details under questioning during the Salmond inquiry. It sums up how detached she is from her actions during her time leading Scotland.”