Sturgeon quits: Hundreds of unionists in Glasgow celebrate with bottles of champagne and conga line

Hundreds of unionist supporters have taken to the streets of Glasgow to celebrate with bottles of champagne and a conga line after the First Minister’s shock resignation yesterday. 

A tearful Sturgeon quit her role as SNP leader – which she has held since 2014 – yesterday morning in a press conference at Bute House. 

The bombshell announcement followed a row over her Gender Reform Bill – an attempt to overhaul trans rights that was blocked by Westminster. 

The divisive figure’s departure has devastated nationalists but has been a source of joy for unionists. 

Around 250 unionist supporters took to George Square in Glasgow last night as they celebrated the First Minister’s departure, and could be seen waving Union Jack flags, opening bottles of bubbly and even forming a conga line. 

A man known as ‘Glasgow Cabbie’ opens a bottle of champagne with Unionist supporters at an an ‘Expose Scotland’ organised meeting at George Square

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The group shouted chants such as ‘Conga conga conga, Nicola’s no longer!’ and ‘Ding dong the witch is dead’ as they merrily skipped past the square’s statues and monuments. 

The group from ‘Expose Scotland’ also held signs reading ‘Sturgeon was not Scotland’.

Others were pictured wearing huge Union Jack flags and a rucksack saying ‘Sturgeon free’ as the crowd sang and shouted.  

The event was organised by cab driver Stef Shaw, known as the ‘Glasgow Cabbie’, who had asked people on Facebook to meet in the square for 7pm to form ‘the world’s biggest ever CONGA!’

He told the Scottish Daily Express: ‘We are really just looking for some relief from such a long time under Sturgeon.

‘The SNP has run us into the ground. Hearing the news I was over the moon – it was bound to happen.’ 

The group shouted chants such as ‘Conga conga conga, Nicola’s no longer!’ as they formed a line

A tearful Sturgeon quit her role as SNP leader – which she has held since 2014 – yesterday morning in a press conference at Bute House

Others were pictured wearing huge Union Jack flags and a rucksack saying ‘Sturgeon free’ as the crowd sang and shouted

The group from ‘Expose Scotland’ also held signs reading ‘Sturgeon was not Scotland’.

The move has devastated nationalists but unionists have taken to the streets to celebrate

The cabbie has previously posted online to call Sturgeon ‘toxic and dangerous’ and says that his aim in his work is ‘to promote Scotland’.  

Ms Sturgeon said her resignation was not linked to ‘short-term issues’ but rather was a matter of duty, saying she could ‘battle on’ but that it would not be the best thing.  

Ms Sturgeon admitted: ‘Part of serving well is to know when the time is right to make way for someone else, and when the time comes to have the courage to do so. 

‘In my head and in my heart I know that time is now, that it is right for me, my party and the country.’ 

Support for independence has also been waning, and there was deep unrest in nationalist circles about her plan of making the next general election a ‘de facto’ referendum after the Supreme Court prevented her from holding one without UK ministers’ approval.

The news – which even blindsided her SNP allies weeks after she told the BBC she had ‘plenty in the tank’ – draws a line under eight years as First Minister, since she replaced her one-time mentor and now sworn enemy Alex Salmond in 2014.