Nicola Sturgeon: Leanne Wood invites Scottish FM to Wales

Leanne Wood says Nicola Sturgeon has "responded quite positively" to her offer

Nicola Sturgeon has been invited to take "some time out of the rat race" and visit Wales when she steps down as Scotland's first minister.

Ms Sturgeon announced she was resigning after more than eight years but would remain until a successor was found.

Plaid Cymru's former leader, Leanne Wood, said she had invited Ms Sturgeon to take some time for "walking on our mountains or across our beaches".

Ms Wood said they had both "supported each other" at different times.

"Hopefully, she'll be able to take some time for herself, some time for self-care, some time out of the rat race," Ms Wood told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement programme.

"I'll be around if she wants to take up my offer on that and she's already responded quite positively."

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Ms Wood was the first woman to lead Plaid Cymru and represent the Rhondda but lost her seat in the 2021 Senedd election.

After more than eight years in the role, Ms Sturgeon is the longest-serving first minister and the first woman to hold the position.

In 2015, she and Ms Wood shared a political platform against austerity measures.

Ms Sturgeon, the Scottish National Party leader, said she knew "in my head and in my heart" this was the right time to step down.

Ms Wood said: "Leadership can be quite a lonely place.

"The buck stops with you and you alone.

"You have to take decisions sometimes on your own, despite advice and support.

"That can be difficult and we've both supported each other through that at different times."

'Together'

Ms Wood, who is now a member of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales, said the pair may even work together in the future.

"I'm sure there'll be maybe pieces of work that we'll do together," she said.

"We've started exploring some of that.

"I'm not in a position to reveal what at this stage but... we go back a long way and I'm sure we'll go into the future a long way too."