Duke of Edinburgh ahead of his time by sacrificing career for powerful woman, say Sturgeon and Davidson

Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson have paid tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh for being decades ahead of his time by sacrificing his career to support a powerful woman.

In a special session at Holyrood, which was recalled following the duke's death, both the First Minister and Ms Davidson noted that few men in the 1950s were willing to play a supporting role to their wives.

Ms Sturgeon said "that reversal of the more traditional dynamic was highly unusual", while the Scottish Tories' Holyrood leader said Prince Philip was "a moderniser in life as well as work."

The First Minister told MSPs that she had witnessed the strength of the "true partnership" between the Queen and Prince Philip while visiting them at Balmoral, and said she "always enjoyed" her conversations with the duke.

She said she was "struck by how different he was in private to the way he was sometimes characterised in public."

Describing him as thoughtful and "fiercely intelligent", she said their conversations would often revolve around the books they were reading and described him as a "serious bookworm."

Ms Davidson praised the Duke for a "life of remarkable public service", saying: "Anyone who in their life fought in World War Two; set up an organisation to help young people build resilience and change the course of their lives for the better; who helped found the world's largest conservation charity to save endangered species; and who gave of his time to help 800 individual charities and who was still working well into his 90s, deserves to have that life recognised."

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, and Willie Rennie, his Liberal Democrat counterpart, highlighted the transformational impact on young people of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme.

But Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Greens' co-leader, raised Prince Philip’s “extreme wealth, privilege and status” as he admitted his party considered boycotting the Holyrood tribute.

He also contrasted the Duke of Edinburgh's support for nature conservation - he was the president of conservation charity WWF for 15 years - with "the bloodsport of the wealthy".

Mr Harvie, whose party supports abolishing the monarchy, said it would have been “wrong to give a performance of feelings not sincerely felt”.

He also contrasted the national mourning since the Duke's death at the age of 99 on Friday with that shown to 150,000 people who have died from Covid in the UK since last Spring.

The special session was staged after the main political parties put their campaigns on hold following the duke's death aged 99 on Friday and Ken Macintosh, the presiding officer, decided to recall MSPs.

This was possible because the parliament was not dissolved for the election as usual, but put into recess so that members could be recalled in the event of any Covid-19 emergency. National campaigning in the May 6 election is expected to resume on Tuesday.

Ms Sturgeon said the duke "faced the additional challenge of being the husband of a powerful woman at a time when that was even more of an exception than it is today."

Ms Davidson said: "How many men in the 1950s gave up their job for their wife’s career? How many headed the household, making the decisions and smoothing the way? How many walked behind their spouse or accepted their children would never take their surname?"

Mr Harvie said: "Today’s environmental movement overwhelmingly places responsibility for the global crisis on the powerful, and would not seek to reconcile conservation with the bloodsport of the wealthy.

"Yet it is still the case that a debt is owed to those whose environmentalism did achieve global awareness, even if it was shaped by different values to today’s."