NICOLA Sturgeon used a speech in the Holyrood chamber earlier today to make jokes at the expense of the leaders of the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish LibDems.

The First Minister was allowed a five-minute speech in which to pitch her case for re-election to the parliament.

Challengers Willie Rennie and Douglas Ross were afforded the same amount of time in which to bid for the role.

Rennie used his time to call for unity and admonish the Tories for threatening the integrity of the Union. 

Ross used his to call on all MSPs to make Scotland proud over this parliamentary session and outline some of his Tory party's policys.

Sturgeon however began on a more jovial note, using the opportunity to jibe at her political rivals.

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She hailed an "heroic, if slightly belated change of heart" on the part of Tory leader Douglas Ross, who had not expressed an intention to become first minister during the election campaign.

Instead, Ross had focused on trying to stop the SNP from winning an outright majority which he claimed would guarantee indyref2.

The SNP leader also took aim at LibDem leader Willie Rennie.

Sturgeon said that she and most other women would wish for a shread of the "self-confidence of the man who can take his party from five MSPs to just four, and yet still threw his hat into the ring to be First Minister".

 

Taking a more serious tone in the second part of her speech, the First Minister called on Scotland "to think big" in how it emerges from the Covid crisis.

She said that recovery would be the "first and driving priority" for the parliament, but added that "Scotland's future must be Scotland's choice".

Sturgeon said: "Countries across the globe will be rethinking and reimagining the kinds of societies they want to be as they emerge from crisis. Here in Scotland, we must do so too. 

"This is a time to think big. It is a time to be pioneers. 

"Just as in many other northern European countries I believe there is broad agreement in Scotland about the kind of country we want to be: a more equal society, with much greater economic security, a country committed to building a sustainable future for the generations to come."