The Scottish Government reshuffle that became the news – for all the wrong reasons

The new Scottish cabinet - Image credit: Scottish Government

As the nominations for Nicola Sturgeon’s new reshuffled ministers were made to parliament, Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw commented that “a reshuffle that was meant to bury bad news has become bad news”

Aberdeenshire East MSP Gillian Martin was removed from the list of new ministers at the last minute on Thursday after opposition parties refused to back her appointment due to offensive remarks about transgender people and other minorities in a 2007 blog post.

It had already been a dramatic reshuffle, the most widespread of Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership, and long expected.

Delays are one of the things her government is often criticised for, whether it is NHS treatment times, hospital discharges, the production of various strategies or ScotRail trains.

Another is blaming everything that doesn’t work on Westminster. But one thing Sturgeon could legitimately blame Westminster for is the delay to her cabinet update.

Originally planned for a year ago, it was put on hold while the party fought the surprise snap general election. And, one suspects, it has probably been more dramatic, given the wait, than it would have been last June.

Not only did it see three cabinet secretaries – including the new depute leader of the SNP – and three ministers leave office, but the number of posts was increased, roles were rejigged, and a posse of bright young things from the 2016 election intake have been given a chance to make their mark.

But most dramatic of all was the removal of Gillian Martin’s nomination after less than 24 hours, which has overshadowed everything.

The new Scottish Government is now the biggest in the history of the Scottish Parliament, with 12 cabinet secretaries – double the size of Alex Salmond’s pared down, six-person cabinet of 2007 – and 13 confirmed ministers, with a fourteenth to be announced once the First Minister has decided on next steps.

That will put forty-two per cent of SNP MSPs in government.

However, who wasn’t moved is just as suggestive of some of the priorities and pressures for Sturgeon as who was.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney retained his role as Education Secretary on the day he was forced to perform a major U-turn on legislation to reform education that the Scottish Government had committed to in its Programme for Government.

In the face of this, it was not possible for Sturgeon to move Swinney. So Swinney’s continued tenure in the role is both an endorsement of him personally, as Sturgeon’s most trusted wingman, but at the same time, a tacit admission of failure.

Short of some major personal scandal, Swinney cannot be moved to another role without some embarrassing climbdown until such a time as clear progress is seen to be made in this area.

Not surprising, either, is Derek Mackay retaining his position as Finance Secretary, although in this case, it is perhaps in recognition of success.

Mackay successfully negotiated the introduction of a change in income tax rates that managed to incorporate increased progressivity for those on the left, but not enough to truly alarm the highest earners.

Whether this actually achieves the projected increased revenue remains to be seen, but for the moment, he has negotiated the treacherous waters of Scotland’s new fiscal powers well.

More challenging, though, will be achieving success in the other part of his expanded role. Although Scottish economic growth overtook the rest of the UK in the first quarter of 2018, it has consistently lagged behind over the last few quarters and increasing productivity remains a key challenge for the Scottish Government, both in terms of showing it can govern successfully and in its push for independence.

The reintegration of finance and most of Keith Brown’s economy brief highlights this – putting the same person in charge of taking revenue from the economy and of growing it too.

But there was also a hint of trying to create separation between the SNP as a party and the government, with one being seen to ‘focus on the day job’ while the other mobilises party activists towards a second independence referendum.

While Brown will focus on the party outside of government – in contrast to Brown’s own assertion in the run-up to the SNP depute leadership vote that being a government minister was what made him a good bet for depute leader – Derek Mackay will step down from his party role as business convener.

Sturgeon said: “To ensure we can deliver the best future for Scotland we must be ready for a snap UK election at any time, and we must also begin the hard work of building a policy platform on which to seek the support of the people of Scotland in the next Holyrood election.

“We must also make sure that the voice, expertise, energies and ideas of our expanded membership are harnessed.

“All of that would be a big enough job, but with more and more people open to the case for independence, it is also essential that we focus time, energy and resources on building the arguments for independence and engaging people across the country in discussion about why it is the best future for Scotland.

“As depute leader of the SNP, and one of our most experienced politicians, there is no better person to lead that work than Keith Brown.”

One expected departure was Shona Robison as Health Secretary. She had been repeatedly under fire for NHS failures to meet waiting times targets and latterly, over issues with NHS Tayside, in her home constituency, for having used charitable giving to fund day-to-day operational functions.

While struggles with staffing, capacity and funding are issues that are affecting the whole of the UK, and the charitable funding procedures the responsibility of the NHS trust itself, the high-profile nature of the issues and the cumulative effect eventually gave the impression that Robison no longer had control over her brief.

But her letter of resignation touched on the personal behind the political, mentioning the deaths of both her parents and the break-up of a relationship as well as a health scare, reminding that politicians are, first and foremost, humans who have the same life issues as anyone else, along with life-encompassing briefs.

While recent problems have overshadowed her departure, among her achievements has been the introduction of minimum unit pricing on alcohol.

The BMA paid tribute to her willingness to talk and former Labour health minister Malcolm Chisholm referred to her “amazing dedication and extensive knowledge” while former first minister Jack McConnell said she had been “caring and decisive”.

Tributes, too, were paid to departing Equalities Secretary Angela Constance by women’s groups for her work on violence against women.

Robison’s successor, former social security minister Jeane Freeman, had been tipped for promotion to the health brief.

She has a background in health and justice, and has been well received in her junior, but high-profile, ministerial role, setting up the new social security service for Scotland, having been seen as someone who was willing to listen to both those with lived experience of the benefits system and receive input from opposition parties.

The changes to roles and responsibilities reflect something of the changing nature of priorities.

It’s not only Jeane Freeman, but the social security portfolio itself that has been promoted, moving from a junior role under equalities to a standalone cabinet position, which is being taken up by former education and science minister Shirley-Anne Somerville.

The promotion of Mike Russell’s post to a cabinet position was no surprise, more a case of making official what was essentially already the case, given his high-profile role in the Brexit negotiations.

One surprising change was the swapping round of Humza Yousaf as transport minister to Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Michael Matheson moving to a newly created role of Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, combining a previous junior ministerial role with parts of the previous economy and rural economy cabinet secretary briefs – highlighting the importance of infrastructure to future economic growth.

To be successful in the transport brief and emerge unscathed having a Teflon shield is the order of the day, with the role as much, or more, a communications and PR role as a practical one.

Communications-savvy Yousaf negotiated well various transport crises, including freak snow, snagging work to the newly opened Queensferry Crossing and missed ScotRail targets, and was expected to get a promotion, as Derek Mackay did from transport before him.

While the move to justice was perhaps unexpected, Sturgeon particularly mentioned dealing with hate crime in relation to his role, which may suggest a key reason for the choice.

Yousaf is not only the youngest ever cabinet secretary, but also the first from an ethnic minority background and Sturgeon’s promotions showed not only that she has an eye on succession planning, but also for increased diversity.

Six of the nine new ministerial appointments were women, with the whole government balanced exactly 50/50.

Sturgeon made reference to this in a speech at an Engender event in the parliament last week.

Talking of complaints about only three men being promoted, she said: “When I get round to replying to these messages, I’ll say, ‘Live with it men, it’s called catch up’.”

The revelations and fallout surrounding Gillian Martin’s nomination may now have put a dampener on those equality credentials though.

And while the refreshed team will no doubt bring some new perspectives, they will not in themselves resolve the biggest issues facing the Scottish Government: growing the economy, funding local government, getting the social security system up and running, controversy over the BTP merger with Police Scotland, tackling chronic staff shortages in health, and getting a coherent policy in education.

These are no small asks of the new team.