I AM OUT OF HERE

NICOLA Sturgeon has declared she could quit Scotland and relo- cate to London to escape the “goldfish bowl scrutiny” of life in her homeland.

- BY CHRIS MCCALL

The former first minister made the comments yesterday as she continued a media blitz to promote her political memoir, Frankly, which is published this week.

Sturgeon, who grew up in the Ayrshire village of Dreghorn, said: “I belong in Scotland. It's my home. But I think being physically out of Scotland for a period might just help to reset my perspective - and to be more selfish about it, just remove me a little bit from that kind of goldfish bowl scrutiny that I still live under in Scotland.”

The MSP, who will quit Holyrood next year, added: “I don't mean that as a complaint, it’s just the reality that Scotland's quite a small country.

“It’s quite a small body politic, and I still feel that I just have to breathe the wrong way, and somebody's writing a story about it, it does sometimes feel very - suffocating is maybe putting it too strongly - but I feel sometimes I can't breathe freely in Scotland. So yeah, maybe not abroad.”

Asked if England was an option, Sturgeon told the BBC: “England is not yet a foreign country - would never be a foreign country - obviously, even when we're independent. But this may shock many people to hear, but I love London.

“For one thing and another, I'm spending a reasonable amount of time in London at the moment, so, yeah, maybe a bit of time down here, who knows?”

But political opponents last night accused Sturgeon of “running away”.