Nicola Sturgeon, 2015

Nicola Sturgeon picked Robert Burns’ My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose as her favourite song during her Desert Island Discs episode seven years ago.

She told Kirsty Young that it was the song, as performed by Eddi Reader, that was played just before she and her husband took their vows.

The First Minister spoke about her upbringing in Irvine, and how she got involved in politics.

“My political awakening, if I can be as grand as to call it that, was all about what was happening around me,” she said.

“It wasn’t some romantic, patriotic vision of Scotland going back to what it had been 300 years previously. It was very much about a sense of hopelessness in the community I was growing up in.”

She also revealed a childhood obsession with Cilla Black, which led to a tantrum when her parents wouldn’t buy her the singer’s latest album.

At the time of the interview Sturgeon was in her first year as Scotland’s leader, saying: “Nothing quite prepares you for that first moment when you’ve got a big decision to make.”

She also spoke candidly about hearing people speculate about why she had never had children.

“People make assumptions about why, and frankly those people know nothing of the reality of that. The assumption that people sometimes make is that I have made a cold, calculated decision to put my career ahead of having a family, and that is not true,” she said.

“Sometimes things happen in life, sometimes they don’t. I don’t have any regrets. If I could turn the clock back… I wouldn’t fundamentally change the path my life has taken.”

One Disc: My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose, sung by Eddi Reader One Book: The Complete Works Of Jane Austen One Luxury: Coffee maker, coffee cup and milk