The first minister of Scotland is the head of government of Scotland, leader of the Scottish Government and keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. 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 international relations. Since the establishment of the office in 1999, seven men (including both tenures as acting first minister by Jim Wallace) and one woman has served in the position.
Donald Dewar was the inaugural person to hold the position following his election in 1999 and is regarded as the "Father of the Nation".[1] Following Dewar's death in 2000 whilst still serving in office, he was succeeded by his Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, Henry McLeish. McLeish resigned from the office of first minister on 8 November 2001 following the officegate scandal and is the shortest-serving First Minister, having served in the role for 1 year and 12 days.[2] Humza Yousaf, who served as first minister between March 2023 and May 2024 is the second shortest–serving first minister after a period in office of 1 year and 39 days.[3] Sturgeon is the longest-serving First Minister, having surpassed Salmond on 25 May 2022.[4] Salmond in turn spent a total of 7 and a half years in the role.
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.[5] [6] [7] [8] 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 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 Lab – LD | Jim Wallace | Elizabeth II (1952–2022) | [9] | |||
| (—) | Jim Wallace | 11 October 2000 | 27 October 2000 | bgcolor= | Liberal Democrat | — (1st) | Dewar Lab – LD (caretaker) | ||||||
| 2 | Henry McLeish | 27 October 2000 | 8 November 2001 | bgcolor= | Labour | — (1st) | McLeish Lab – LD | ||||||
| (—) | Jim Wallace | 8 November 2001 | 27 November 2001 | bgcolor= | Liberal Democrat | — (1st) | McLeish Lab – LD (caretaker) | ||||||
| 3 | Jack McConnell | 27 November 2001 | 16 May 2007 | Labour | — (1st) | McConnell I Lab – LD | |||||||
| 2003 (2nd) | McConnell II Lab – LD | ||||||||||||
| Nicol Stephen | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Alex Salmond | 17 May 2007 | 18 November 2014 | SNP | 2007 (3rd) | Salmond I SNP (minority) | Nicola Sturgeon | [10] | |||||
| 2011 (4th) | Salmond II SNP | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Nicola Sturgeon | 20 November 2014 | 28 March 2023 | SNP | — (4th) | Sturgeon I SNP | John Swinney | [11] | |||||
| 2016 (5th) | Sturgeon II SNP (minority) | ||||||||||||
| 2021 (6th) | Sturgeon III SNP – Green | ||||||||||||
Charles III (2022–present) | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Humza Yousaf | 29 March 2023 | 7 May 2024 | SNP | — (6th) | Yousaf I SNP – Green | Shona Robison | [12] | |||||
| Yousaf II SNP (minority) | |||||||||||||
| 7 | John Swinney | 8 May 2024 | Incumbent | bgcolor= | — (6th) | Swinney SNP (minority) | Kate Forbes | ||||||