The First Minister of Scotland is the leader of the Scottish Government, Scotland's devolved government. The First Minister is responsible for the exercise of functions by the Cabinet of the Scottish Government; policy development and coordination; relationships with the rest of the United Kingdom, Europe and the wider world. The First Minister is a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), and is nominated by the Scottish Parliament before being officially appointed by the monarch.
The current first minister is John Swinney, who leads the Government of the 6th Scottish Parliament, as did his predecessors Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon. Before that, Alex Salmond, led the governments of the 3rd and 4th Scottish Parliaments which was first elected in 2007 as a minority government, and re-elected in 2011, where they formed the first majority government in the 5th Scottish Parliament. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Sturgeon is the longest-serving First Minister, having surpassed Salmond on 25 May 2022. [5] Salmond in turn spent a total of 7 and a half years in the role. Donald Dewar was the first person to hold the position. Henry McLeish is the shortest-serving First Minister, having served in the role for 1 year and 12 days.
The parties shown are those to which the first ministers belonged to at the time they held office, and the constituencies shown are those they represented while in office.
Background and italics indicates caretaker First Minister
No. | Portrait | Name (birth–death) constituency | Term of office | Party | Election (parliament) | Government | Deputy | Monarch (reign) | Ref. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Took office | Left office | Tenure | ||||||||||
1 | Donald Dewar (1937–2000) MSP for Glasgow Anniesland Premiership | 17 May 1999 | 11 October 2000† | 1 year, 147 days | Labour | 1999 (1st) | Dewar | Jim Wallace | Elizabeth II (1952–2022) | [6] | ||
(—) | Jim Wallace (born 1954) MSP for Orkney | 11 October 2000 | 27 October 2000 | 16 days | Liberal Democrat | — (1st) | Caretaker | Vacant | ||||
2 | Henry McLeish (born 1948) MSP for Central Fife Premiership | 27 October 2000 | 8 November 2001 | 1 year, 12 days | Labour | — (1st) | McLeish | Jim Wallace | ||||
(—) | Jim Wallace (born 1954) MSP for Orkney | 8 November 2001 | 27 November 2001 | 19 days | Liberal Democrat | — (1st) | Caretaker | Vacant | ||||
3 | Jack McConnell (born 1960) MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw Premiership | 27 November 2001 | 16 May 2007 | 5 years, 170 days | Labour | — (1st) | McConnell I | Jim Wallace | ||||
2003 (2nd) | McConnell II | |||||||||||
Nicol Stephen | ||||||||||||
4 | Alex Salmond (born 1954) MSP for Gordon (until 2011) MSP for Aberdeenshire East (from 2011) Premiership | 17 May 2007 | 18 November 2014 | 7 years, 185 days | SNP | 2007 (3rd) | Salmond I | Nicola Sturgeon | [7] | |||
2011 (4th) | Salmond II | |||||||||||
5 | Nicola Sturgeon (born 1970) MSP for Glasgow Southside Premiership | 20 November 2014 | 28 March 2023 | 8 years, 128 days | SNP | — (4th) | Sturgeon I | John Swinney | [8] | |||
2016 (5th) | Sturgeon II | |||||||||||
2021 (6th) | Sturgeon III | |||||||||||
Charles III (2022–present) | ||||||||||||
6 | Humza Yousaf (born 1985) MSP for Glasgow Pollok Premiership | 29 March 2023 | 7 May 2024 | 1 year, 39 days | SNP | — (6th) | Yousaf I | Shona Robison | [9] | |||
Yousaf II | ||||||||||||
7 | John Swinney (born 1964) MSP for Perthshire North Premiership | 8 May 2024 | Incumbent | 9 days | SNP | — (6th) | Swinney | Kate Forbes |
The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party. It has governed Scotland since 2007.
John Ramsay Swinney is a Scottish politician who has served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since May 2024. He previously served as the leader of the SNP from 2000 to 2004 as Leader of the Opposition, and held various roles within the Scottish Cabinet from 2007 to 2023 under First Ministers Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. Swinney was Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North Tayside from 1999 to 2011 and, following boundary changes, has been MSP for Perthshire North since 2011. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Tayside North from 1997 to 2001.
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Humza Haroon Yousaf is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from March 2023 to May 2024. He served under his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon as justice secretary from 2018 to 2021 and then as health secretary from 2021 to 2023. He has been Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Pollok since 2016, having previously been a regional MSP for Glasgow from 2011 to 2016.
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