Humza Yousaf announced on Tuesday, after being voted in by 71 MSPs as Scotland’s First Minister, that Shona Robison would be his deputy. The long-term friend of Nicola Sturgeon will now help Yousaf decide who he will appoint to his cabinet, a decision that will set the tone for the next year and a half of his leadership.
While earlier it was unclear what Yousaf would offer Kate Forbes, it was on Tuesday evening revealed that Yousaf’s main competitor has been offered the rural affairs portfolio. Rejecting this offer, Forbes has now quit government and will go to the back benches.
Now it has been confirmed that Ivan McKee, Forbes’s original campaign manager at the start of the leadership contest and former business minister, has left the Scottish government after being offered a job that he saw as a demotion.
It would be unwise to forget that almost half of all those members that voted would have preferred Kate Forbes to be their first minister over Yousaf
Did Yousaf anticipate this? Earlier in the day he told journalists that ‘I’ve not spoken to [Forbes] about a final offer yet.
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