'Queen of Scots' Sturgeon could be UK election kingmaker

Steely and polished, Scotland's pro-independence First Minister Nicola Sturgeon could decide who is Britain's prime minister after May's election thanks to an extraordinary surge in support for her party.

Despite the "Yes" camp losing last year's independence referendum, Sturgeon's Scottish National Party (SNP) has since quadrupled its membership and could now win most parliament seats in Scotland.

Sturgeon's performance in the only national television debate of the campaign last week was widely praised by leftists for her scathing attacks on austerity.

While she personally is not standing at the election and the SNP does not field candidates outside Scotland, some newfound supporters south of the border said they wished they could vote for her.

In an election unlikely to produce a clear winner, Sturgeon says the SNP could prop up Ed Miliband's Labour party in a minority government to keep Prime Minister David Cameron out of Downing Street on May 7.

"I don't want David Cameron to be prime minister, I'm offering to help make Ed Miliband prime minister," she said during a Scottish leaders' TV debate Tuesday.

Sturgeon has fended off what she has branded "dirty tricks" after a leaked memo alleging that she said in a private meeting that she would prefer Cameron to stay and did not think Miliband was ready to lead.

The 44-year-old former lawyer only took over as first minister and SNP leader last year from her mentor Alex Salmond, who dominated the party for quarter of a century.

She has been labelled "Queen of Scots" by some media and "the most dangerous woman in Britain" by the anti-independence Daily Mail.

Her no-nonsense style has drawn comparisons with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

- Working class background -

Sturgeon was born in the industrial town of Irvine, southwest of Glasgow, in 1970 to an electrician father and a mother who remains active in local SNP politics.

She joined the SNP aged 16, becoming politicised in the 1980s under Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, widely disliked in Scotland.

"Thatcher was prime minister, the economy wasn't in great shape, lots of people around me were looking at a life or an immediate future of unemployment and I think that certainly gave me a strong sense of social justice," Sturgeon told the BBC last year.

She studied law at Glasgow University and stood unsuccessfully for the House of Commons in 1992, aged just 21, before starting her career as a lawyer.

When the Scottish Parliament was created in 1999, Sturgeon entered major league politics as one of its first wave of lawmakers.

Her nickname at that stage was "nippy sweetie" -- Scots slang for a pushy person.

By 2004 she was a candidate to lead the SNP but stepped aside when Salmond ran for the job, becoming his deputy and the SNP's high-profile leader in the Scottish Parliament.

Since 2007, the SNP has been in power in Scotland and Sturgeon, married to the party's chief executive Peter Murrell, was health minister for much of that time.

- Referendum and beyond -

Under pressure from the SNP government, Cameron agreed in 2012 to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014.

Sturgeon was put in charge of the party's campaign, during which she helped build a grassroots "Yes" movement and appealed to women and young people.

When Salmond resigned after Scottish voters rejected independence, Sturgeon emerged as the only candidate to succeed him and became Scotland's first female first minister last November.

Sturgeon has been publicly pushing for an agreement with Labour which would rein in deep austerity measures imposed by Cameron's government to tackle Britain's budget deficit.

But a memo leaked to the Daily Telegraph last week alleged that she privately wants Cameron's Conservatives to win -- something she denies.

Some commentators believe that result would bring a second referendum on Scottish independence closer.

Sturgeon called the claims "categorically 100 percent untrue" -- but admitted in Tuesday's debate that the SNP could push for another referendum soon.

The so-called "NickiLeaks" controversy has not so far dented the standing of a woman whom the Scotsman newspaper last month called Britain's "most impressive political leader".

"She is a force in the land, whether you regard that land as Scotland or the UK," it added.