Inside the SNP as Nicola Sturgeon announced her resignation

Before their phones started pinging with news alerts and the battle began to “fend off every single journalist in the world at the same time” without so much as a twig, it was looking like a regular day in the office.

One SNP source told The National that workers within the party, including the press office, were taken entirely by surprise on Wednesday morning.

They said: “We only got a heads up about the unscheduled Scottish Government press conference at around 9am, but no heads up about what it was going to be."

Most SNP staff and representatives were given no warning from party officials but the source added “speculation was rife after the conference was announced - we had a lot of speculation swirling that she might be resigning.”

Staff and representatives were kept in the dark (Image: PA)

As the news of Nicola Sturgeon’s intentions made its way to staff at the party headquarters in Edinburgh, they didn't know where to turn.

And how does it feel to watch the leader of their party resign? Colleagues were side by side watching the TV as Sturgeon took to the podium.

Normally, party staff are the ones to send a press release for announcements, maybe even a copy of the speech or at least key lines to media outlets. But not this time.

“Everyone was totally taken aback, just stunned into silence”.

The party source working at Holyrood said: “The vibe was just generally of sadness and a bit of despair.

“I don’t know who is capable of filling her shoes, but at the same time, a change was long overdue. I just really wasn’t expecting this resignation to come so soon and it’s just left a fucking vacuum in the party.

“It is shocking in the short term, and deflating in the long term,” the source added.

As the source described the scenes, they sounded preemptively exhausted for the months to come.

“There’s a long and likely chaotic leadership campaign to come, and the March 19 conference will most likely be postponed.”

When asked how likely, they said: “I’m 98% sure it will be postponed.”

READ MORE: LIVE: Calls for SNP democracy conference to be delayed after FM's resignation

Moving on to the challenges of the campaign and conference for staff going forward, HQ wants the election to be “done and dusted” by the end of March. However, some of the potential “wildcard” candidates are said to be wanting the process to go on for longer.

And the challenge of independence?

They reflected on Sturgeon’s impact on independence, calling it “a unique moment” in Scottish politics that “we’ll probably never have again”.

“Right now, I’m mostly feeling the overwhelming despair and malaise.”

An SNP MSP researcher, whose phone blew up as the news was breaking, said they had been taught to campaign by the First Minister herself, but understood why she was stepping down. They added: “We have a lot to thank her for.”

One SNP councillor said they heard the rumours that were doing the rounds a couple of weeks ago but dismissed them and, on the morning of the resignation, they again dismissed comments.

They said: “I was at a meeting with someone in Paisley and they said ‘oh, I hear Sturgeon’s resigning?’ and I said it was just a press conference. Turns out the punters know better than me, so there goes my reputation for being in the know.”

They added: “I was pretty surprised. I think she was pretty secure and could’ve been party leader as long as she wanted, but the pressure must be enormous. I can understand why she’d say enough is enough and want to move on to something else.

“You can understand when she’s saying she’s missing out on family and seeing her nieces and nephews … it’s a demoralising job at times.”

Another councillor said their partner ran through to tell them about the breaking news, to which they laughed.

“I didn’t believe it.”

But upon double checking on numerous news sites, the councillor said they tried to continue working until answers were heard from the woman herself.

After watching the conference they said: “It was “entirely the right way” to resign. They added: “It’s fundamentally a decision for the individual at that point.”

A breaking news alert came through as one Westminster source worked from home: “Nicola Sturgeon to resign as First Minister.”

As a staffer to an SNP MP, their initial reaction was “what the hell?”

“It was need to know, I guess,” they told us. “Plus it’s recess in Westminster, so everyone was working from home, and when the story broke on Twitter that was the first time most of us had any idea - most of our MPs found out then too.

“If we were there with MPs and other staff, I think there might have been a bit more reaction, if everyone was together, but when you’re on your own, you’re just looking around like ‘what…’.”

At Bute House (Image: PA)

From speaking with colleagues, the Westminster staffer said the reaction was different from when Alex Salmond resigned.

They said: “There was way more emotion from people. People were upset, and crying. Maybe that’s because we’re in Westminster - you know, staff don’t know Nicola generally, which is different to Alex, we knew him.”

A second Westminster staffer described Wednesday as “a bit depressing” and was sad to see Sturgeon go. They said: “The initial shock is always a bit, ugh, fucking hell, but I think there’s a lot of hope as a party, there’s obviously short-term pressures but we’ve never been stronger.

“With these kinds of things, we’re given a bit of a rough idea in advance, we kind of had to be, it’s our job to deal with the press - so there was a bit of awareness.”

When asked how aware, they replied: “These things have to be kept quite tight, I’m not sure how other colleagues found out. I can’t really say.”

One SNP MP confirmed that most, if not all, MPs found out from media sources. However, the MP did receive a text from a “retired friend” on Wednesday morning that Sturgeon had a statement to give.

So, who knew what and when? Not many knew, and if they did, only very shortly before the rest of the nation.