Rising star of SNP forced to resign in disgrace

He had been tipped as a possible successor to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, but now Derek Mackay has been forced to quit the Scottish Government.

The 42-year-old stepped down as finance secretary just hours before he was due to deliver his Budget, after the Scottish Sun revealed he had sent hundreds of messages to a 16-year-old schoolboy.

It comes more than two decades after he began his career in politics, being elected as a councillor in Renfrewshire in 1999.

It made him the youngest male councillor in Scotland, having been elected at 21.

Mr Mackay went on to become leader of the council’s SNP group and took it into power in the area for the first time in 2007, at which point he became leader of the council.

He used his role to build a national profile within local politics, becoming the SNP group leader at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), the organisation that represents Scotland’s councils.

In 2011 he was elected to Holyrood as MSP for Renfrewshire North and West.

That year he joined the Scottish Government, becoming minister for local government and planning.

A reshuffle after Ms Sturgeon became First Minister in 2014 saw him appointed transport minister.

He was further promoted to the Cabinet after the 2016 Scottish election, taking the job of finance and economy secretary.

He was previously married and has two children, but in 2013 he came out as gay. He later described that as the “most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with”.

During his time as finance secretary, he was responsible for introducing new Scottish income tax rates, including a “starter rate” set at 19p for lower earners.

In February last year it emerged that Mr Mackay had spent almost £1,000 of taxpayers’ money on a “refresher course” in public speaking.

The money went to a Glasgow firm, voicebusiness, which boasts it can turn “nervous wrecks into skilled presenters”.

The training cost £972.12, according to correspondence released through freedom of information.

Mr Mackay had admitted sometimes feeling imposter syndrome in politics, telling Holyrood magazine: “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to admit that there are times when I don’t think I’m good enough to do the job.”

But he quickly added that, “having met my so-called Imperial Masters [at the Treasury], I am feeling perfectly apt and perfectly up to the job”.