List of first ministers of Scotland

• Top left: Donald Dewar was the first ever first minister of Scotland.
• Top right: Jack McConnell was the youngest first minister on the day he was sworn in.
• Bottom left: Alex Salmond was the longest serving first minister.
• Bottom right: Nicola Sturgeon is the current and first female first minister.

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.

Currently, the First Minister is Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party (SNP), who succeeded Alex Salmond in November 2014 following his resignation after the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Sturgeon has led the Government of the 6th Scottish Parliament since 2021. Sturgeon, and before that, Alex Salmond, previously 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 Scottish Parliament.^[1][2][3][4]

The longest-serving First Minister is Alex Salmond, who surpassed Jack McConnell on 7 November 2012 and spent a total of 7 and a half years in the role.^[5] Donald Dewar was the first person to hold the position, while Nicola Sturgeon is the first female first minister.

Chronological list of First Ministers of Scotland[]

No.		Portrait	Name (birth and death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Term (Election)	Ministry	Deputy First Minister (Term)
	1		Donald Dewar (1937–2000)† MSP for Glasgow Anniesland	17 May 1999	11 October 2000	1 year, 147 days	Scottish Labour Party	1st (1999)	Dewar Lab – LD		Jim Wallace (LD) (19 May 1999 – 23 June 2005)
	—		Jim Wallace (acting) MSP for Orkney	11 October 2000	27 October 2000	16 days	Scottish Liberal Democrats
	2		Henry McLeish (1948–) MSP for Central Fife	27 October 2000	8 November 2001	1 year, 12 days	Scottish Labour Party		McLeish Lab – LD
	—		Jim Wallace (acting) MSP for Orkney	8 November 2001	27 November 2001	19 days	Scottish Liberal Democrats
	3		Jack McConnell (1960–) MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw	27 November 2001	16 May 2007	5 years, 170 days	Scottish Labour Party		1st McConnell Lab – LD
								2nd (2003)	2nd McConnell Lab – LD
											Nicol Stephen (LD) (27 June 2005 – 17 May 2007)
	4		Alex Salmond (1954–) MSP for Gordon until 2011 MSP for Aberdeenshire East from 2011	17 May 2007	18 November 2014	7 years, 185 days	Scottish National Party	3rd (2007)	1st Salmond SNP (minority)		Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) (17 May 2007 – 19 November 2014)
								4th (2011)	2nd Salmond SNP
	5		Nicola Sturgeon (1970–) MSP for Glasgow Southside	20 November 2014	Incumbent	6 years, 295 days			1st Sturgeon SNP		John Swinney (SNP) (21 November 2014 – Present)
								5th (2016)	2nd Sturgeon SNP (minority)
								6th (2021)	3rd Sturgeon SNP – Green (co-operation, from Aug 2021)

† Died in office.

Timeline[]

References[]

External links[]

• Scottish Government web site