Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon announces plans to resign

Scotland's first minister is resigning, saying she is not the asset she once was in the fight for an independent Scotland. 52-year-old Nicola Sturgeon has been first minister since 2014. During her announcement earlier today, Sturgeon said she will stay in place until a successor is found. Essentially, I've been trying to answer two questions. Is carrying on right for me? And more importantly, is me carrying on right for the country, for my party, and for the independence cause I have devoted my life to? CBS News foreign correspondent Remi Inocencio joins us now from our London bureau. Remi, what's changed here? Nicola Sturgeon had been really a champion of Scotland's independence. She was against Brexit and now she seems to feel as if she's not helpful in that fight.

What's so significant about this announcement? Right, this was a surprise to everyone watching Scottish politics, British politics really. A shock to everyone here at the core, a shock to Scotland's independence movement. Nicola Sturgeon, we know, was the driving force to make that dream a reality in the past eight years as first minister. She came back, she came to power back in 2014 and that was just months after Scotland's first and now we know only independence referendum that failed. But as recently as last November, Sturgeon said she would keep trying even after the UK Supreme Court barred Scotland from holding another referendum. Today though, she said politics has just gotten more quote brutal since she took office and that in her head and in her heart she just had to go. She did also though remind people she has been campaigning for Scottish independence since she was a teenager.

But you know that movement now with her resignation will falter, her successor. Notably, her predecessor today also said though that there is no clear strategy now for that movement. Rami, I want to ask you about something else because Sturgeon's been facing criticism over transgender rights. Tell us about that and did that at all come to play in her decision to resign? Right, you're referring to her very strong support for gender recognition reforms which would basically have made it easier for people to change their gender on officials. Now that came into focus after a transgender woman who had committed two rapes as a man was first sent to a women only prison. She was then moved to a male prison after a few days but you know looking at all this, a lot of controversy and that just did not die down. Sturgeon has denied that her resignation had anything to do with that, that it wasn't the final straw, that she'll always be a voice for inclusion.

But she did say that she regretted not being able to quote unquote cool down those debates. And she does step down with her popularity at its lowest since she's been in office. With that said, she has survived in politics longer than five British Prime Ministers here, three US presidents and along with that two monarchs of the United Kingdom. So she has been a survivor at least until now. Pretty remarkable but now with Sturgeon stepping down, you mentioned earlier someone had said there's no clear strategy for what comes next. So let me ask you, Ramey, what happens next? It depends on who comes after her. In her resignation speech today, Sturgeon said that the SNP, the Scottish National Party was awash with talented individuals but she so far has avoided backing anyone in particular.

I've been looking at some names here and one of them that's come up is her Deputy Minister, makes sense, her number two, John Swinney. He actually led the party a few decades ago. But another person that's come up, Scotland's Constitution Secretary who's in charge of independence has come up too. I bring him up, Angus Robertson, because punters, people literally betting money, and there are many of them, have put him as a front runner. His odds are even. Sturgeon, for her part, will stay in office until a new election is called. But you know, going back to her talk about Scottish independence, she says the next election should be a de facto vote on whether to secede.

So she is trying to keep that topic very much alive. All right, Ramey and Asencio, thank you. Thank you, Ramey. Thank you very much.

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