FIRST MINISTER John Swinney is expected to reshuffle his Cabinet as soon as next week, with a minister returning from maternity leave.
The "minimalist" reshuffle comes after the SNP’s loss to Labour in the Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse by-election.
Despite the by-election loss and internal splits, the party continues to lead in the polls ahead of next year's election, with Swinney saying the Government must “deliver on the priorities of the people of Scotland”.
Following the by-election, Swinney had hinted that there would be a reshuffle on the horizon for Scottish Government ministers.
Noting that Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, Mairi McAllan (above), is due to return from maternity leave, he said he would “have a look at the team” in “due course”.
Swinney is also expected to appoint a new Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister following the death of Christina McKelvie.
While the exact timing of the reshuffle is unknown, it is thought to be sooner rather than later, with reports it will be in the next few days or next week.
The First Minister said he intended to win the 2026 Holyrood election, adding his party would “get stronger” after losing the Hamilton seat, which it had taken in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election with 46% of all ballots cast, compared with its vote share of 29.35% in Thursday’s by-election.
Newly elected Scottish Labour MSP Davy Russell won with 8559 votes while SNP candidate Katy Loudon took 7957 votes. Reform’s Ross Lambie secured 7088 votes.
Swinney said: “We’ve got to give people hope of what the future lies for Scotland, and that’s as a country that can use our enormous energy wealth for the benefit of our people who are paying extraordinarily high fuel prices at the moment.”
When asked if he would consider a coalition between the SNP, Labour and the Greens to keep Reform out of government, Swinney said: “We’ll be going into that with the aim of winning that election.
“If you look at the result on Thursday, all the pollsters say that if that was applied across the wider electorate in Scotland, the SNP would remain by a country mile the largest political party in the Scottish Parliament.
“Now that’s not good enough. I want to get stronger in that election, but I’ll tell you one thing I will not do under any circumstances, is do any form of deal or co-operation with Farage. I just won’t do it, and people need to understand that.”
