Alex Salmond Nicola Sturgeon The 2014 Scottish National Party leadership election was held to choose the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and First Minister of Scotland, following the resignation of Alex Salmond as first minister and leader.

Salmond's new majority administration pushed for its manifesto commitment of holding a referendum on Scottish independence.

In the 2000 leadership election, John Swinney succeeded Salmond as leader of the SNP, after defeating Alex Neil.

[3][4][5] Both campaigns disagreed on the approach of gaining Scottish independence, and these differing views, would dominate the leadership of Swinney.

In both elections, the SNP performed poorly and the media raised some doubt about his ability to lead the party.

[7][8] Wilson ran a campaign attacking Swinney's proposals for party reform, which he claimed would centralise power and impoverish local branches.

[10] The election was also yet another fight between the party's Fundamentalists and gradualists, with Wilson attacking Swinney's proposal for a referendum on independence before pursuing negotiations with the British government.

Roseanna Cunningham called Wilson was a "stalking horse" candidate put forward to "weaken and damage" the leadership.

[12] Following a disappointing European election result in 2004, which saw the party dropping to less than 20% of the vote, senior figures within the SNP began privately briefing against Swinney.

[15][16][17] Alex Neil, who ran in the previous election against Swinney, considered running again for party leader, although later pulled out of the race.

[18][13] The fight over who was to succeed Swinney saw the re-emergence of former leader Alex Salmond, who entered the race despite having repeatedly denied any ambitions to run.

[22] As Salmond was still an MP in the British House of Commons, Sturgeon led the SNP in the Scottish Parliament as Leader of the Opposition until the 2007 election.

[62] She was backed by a number of Scottish government ministers, including Alex Neil and Humza Yousaf,[63] and former SNP leader Gordon Wilson.

Three people, Angela Constance,[68] Keith Brown[69] and Stewart Hosie launched bids to succeed Sturgeon as SNP Depute Leader.

[70] The results were announced at the conference, with Hosie polling 42.2%, Brown on 34.2% and Constance on 23.5% in the first round of the single transferable vote election.

[71] With Hosie serving in Westminster, John Swinney was appointed as Deputy First Minister when Sturgeon took office on 19 November.