Arlene Foster wishes Nicola Sturgeon well despite pledging to fight 'as long as I have breath' against her dream of 'destroying the UK as we know it'

Dame Arlene Foster was reacting to the announcement on Wednesday from Ms Sturgeon that she will be stepping down as both party boss and Scottish First Minister.

During her resignation speech she stressed the mental toll her career in the public eye has taken on her and her family, and downplayed the significance of recent political batterings such as the one which accompanied her gender-switching bill.

Mrs Foster was DUP leader from December 2015 to May 2021, and was First Minister through most of that time, before being ousted in a party coup when the bulk of MPs and MLAs said they had no confidence in her leadership.

Speaking of Nicola Sturgeon, Mrs Foster said while they were “not sharing much in common politically”, she had been “a formidable leader” whom she now wished well.

Whilst Mrs Foster said her own animating cause was to defend the Union “for as long as I have breath,” Ms Sturgeon was the “complete opposite” in that she wants “to destroy the UK as we know it".

Mrs Foster said: “Her passion was obviously for Scottish independence, and she used that passion to drive her forward.

"People have said they're surprised she's decided to go. I'm not particularly surprised.

"I've thought for some time that she looked like she wasn't enjoying it as much as she did in years gone by.

"That's not something we should be incredibly surprised about, because the role of not just a politician but being the leader, in her case, of Scotland, is an incredibly intense role, therefore you can only do it 100% for so many years.”

Mrs Foster noted that both she and Ms Sturgeon used the phrase “brutal” to describe political life when stepping down.

“Politics is brutal,” she said.

"I don't think people realise just how challenging it can be until you're actually in the field of play, dealing with all the things that have been thrown at you.”

However, Mrs Foster added that she has “no doubt we’ll be seeing Nicola Sturgeon” again in some guise during the years ahead.

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