Sturgeon Ready For Queen Meeting

Nicola Sturgeon will hold her first audience with the Queen since becoming First Minister today.

She will also be sworn in as a member of the Privy Council - a group of advisers to the Queen, most of whom are senior politicians - during her visit to London.

Ms Sturgeon said she was very much looking forward'' to her first meeting with the Queen when the audience was announced last month.

Ms Sturgeon said: The discussions that I will have with her majesty will be entirely confidential but I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to meet her.''

A Scottish Government spokesman said: The First Minister will be in London on December 10 when she will be sworn in as a member of the Privy Council and is looking forward to an audience with Her Majesty the Queen on the same day.''

Ms Sturgeon became Scotland's fifth First Minister, and the first woman to hold the post, after a vote at Holyrood.

She succeeds Alex Salmond, who stepped down as both SNP leader and First Minister in the wake of the Scottish independence referendum defeat.

He has announced that he intends to stand for the Westminster seat of Gordon at next year's general election.