Independent Scotland 'will happen soon' says new SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon

SCOTLAND will become independent "well within my lifetime" Nicola Sturgeon forecast today after she was confirmed as the Scottish National Party's new leader.

Nicola Sturgeon SNP LeaderThe SNP announced that Nicola Sturgeon was the only candidate to succeed Alex Salmond as SNP leader [PA]

The 44-year-old SNP deputy was the only candidate who applied to succeed Alex Salmond who is quitting as leader and as Scottish First Minister after Scots rejected independence from the UK in last month's referendum.

Ms Sturgeon's coronation means the SNP, Labour and the Conservatives in Scotland will all be led by women.

She will formally take the job at the SNP's autumn conference in Perth next month before seeking the approval of the Scottish Parliament and the Queen to become Scotland's fifth First Minister and its first female one since devolution in 1999.

She promised to govern for all Scots, not just the 44.7 per cent who backed independence last month, and vowed to ensure the Westminster parties delivered the extensive new powers they promised the Scottish Parliament during the referendum campaign.

She refused to repeat Mr Salmond's formula that there would not be another referendum within "a generation" or about 20 years, and suggested a big SNP win in the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections could be decisive in deciding the timing.

"I believe Scotland will become an independent country. I believe that would be well within my lifetime," she added.

I believe Scotland will become an independent country. I believe that would be well within my lifetime

Nicola Sturgeon

At Commons Scottish questions today, the SNP's Westminster leader Angus Robertson bridled at Tory minister David Mundell's note that Ms Sturgeon was "emulating Margaret Thatcher" by becoming a female party leader.

Mr Robertson hit back: "There is absolutely no comparison between Nicola Sturgeon and Margaret Thatcher.

"Nicola Sturgeon will be leading the most popular political party in Scotland.

"Margaret Thatcher destroyed the Tory Party and you are the living proof - they have only one seat in Scotland."

Ms Sturgeon - an avid fan of TV political drama in which Brigitte Nyborg becomes Denmark's first female leader - sought to provide a "feminising" edge to Mr Salmond's often macho-seeming approach in the referendum campaign.

But she is also known to be fiercely ambitious and to have long coveted the top job, having been Mr Salmond's deputy for 10 years and Deputy First Minister since the SNP won the Holyrood elections in 2007.

"Anybody, in any walk of life, if they are ambitious, wants to get to the pinnacle of their profession," she told one interviewer.

Born in the North Ayrshire town of Irvine, she joined the SNP at 16 before studying law at Glasgow University and working as a solicitor then being elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

She has been married since 2010 to SNP chief executive Peter Murrell but denies the couple will wield an unhealthy amount of power in the party when she is leader.

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