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.
| Portrait | Name | Term of office | Party | Election | Government | Deputy | Monarch | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Tenure | |||||||||||
| 1 | Donald Dewar | 17 May 1999 | 11 October 2000† | bgcolor= | Labour | 1999 (1st) | Dewar | Jim Wallace | Elizabeth II (1952–2022) | [6] | |||
| (—) | Jim Wallace | 11 October 2000 | 27 October 2000 | bgcolor= | Liberal Democrat | — (1st) | Caretaker | Vacant | |||||
| 2 | Henry McLeish | 27 October 2000 | 8 November 2001 | bgcolor= | Labour | — (1st) | McLeish | Jim Wallace | |||||
| (—) | Jim Wallace | 8 November 2001 | 27 November 2001 | bgcolor= | Liberal Democrat | — (1st) | Caretaker | Vacant | |||||
| 3 | Jack McConnell | 27 November 2001 | 16 May 2007 | Labour | — (1st) | McConnell I | Jim Wallace | ||||||
| 2003 (2nd) | McConnell II | ||||||||||||
| Nicol Stephen | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Alex Salmond | 17 May 2007 | 18 November 2014 | SNP | 2007 (3rd) | Salmond I | Nicola Sturgeon | [7] | |||||
| 2011 (4th) | Salmond II | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Nicola Sturgeon | 20 November 2014 | 28 March 2023 | SNP | — (4th) | Sturgeon I | John Swinney | [8] | |||||
| 2016 (5th) | Sturgeon II | ||||||||||||
| 2021 (6th) | Sturgeon III | ||||||||||||
Charles III (2022–present) | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Humza Yousaf | 29 March 2023 | 7 May 2024 | SNP | — (6th) | Yousaf I | Shona Robison | [9] | |||||
| Yousaf II | |||||||||||||
| 7 | John Swinney | 8 May 2024 | Incumbent | bgcolor= | — (6th) | Kate Forbes | |||||||