Nicola Sturgeon said she is “still relatively young” as she denied planning to quit as first minister after recently suggesting she might foster children upon leaving politics.
Speculation has mounted about the SNP leader’s future since she gave an interview that touched on life after Holyrood.
“Just because somebody asked me something and I answered it doesn’t mean that I [have] sort of proactively gone onto that ground,” Sturgeon told ITV Border. “I am the first minister, I was elected, re-elected with a historically high share of the vote a matter of months ago.”
Sturgeon, 51, who has been an MSP since 1999 when she was elected aged 29, told Peter McMahon, ITV Border’s political editor, that she remained focused on leading the country.
She added: “I’m still relatively young . . . but whenever I move on from this job I’ve got many years ahead of me to think about other things, but I’m not thinking about those things right now.”
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Sturgeon, who married Peter Murrell, 56, the chief executive of the SNP, in 2010, said in an interview with Vogue that the couple are considering fostering children.
She said that she has been “really involved in, and passionate about, improving the opportunities for young people who grew up in care” but that she and Murrell have “only scratched the surface of talking about” the possibility of taking in a child.
In 2016 the first minister was widely praised for revealing that she had a miscarriage in 2011, when she was 40 and had been married for a year, as she spoke of the sense of loss experienced by many women and their partners.
Sturgeon told Vogue that she has thought about writing a book when she steps down. She has previously denied rumours that she has lined up a job with the United Nations but there continues to be speculation over when she will step down as first minister and what she might do next.
Political observers, including within the SNP, are increasingly willing to talk about who could replace Sturgeon when she resigns but there is pessimism about the credentials of the next generation of nationalist politicians.
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Kate Forbes, the finance secretary, has let it be known that she is not interested in stepping up while Humza Yousaf has received criticism for his performance since being appointed health secretary in the summer. Angus Robertson, the constitution secretary, is seen as a divisive figure.
Outsiders could include Michael Matheson, the Net Zero minister, and Neil Gray, the convener of the social security committee.
Sturgeon, who will next year become the longest-serving first minister, has ruled out joining the House of Lords or taking on another political leadership role when she does step down.
