NICOLA Sturgeon has won the top accolade at the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards, on the first anniversary of her becoming First Minister.

The SNP leader, who led her party to its monumental success at May's General Election election when it scooped all but three of the 59 seats north of the Border, has now won the Herald award for a record fourth time, overtaking Alex Salmond.

She took the top prize over Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, after maintaining remarkable popularity with voters over the past 12 months in which she forced closing the attainment gap between children from rich and poor families to the top of the political agenda, made meaningful progress on gender equality and saw her party's membership soar to well over 110,000.