STURGEON ROCKED AS ANOTHER MINISTER TO QUIT
Crisis for SNP as Communities Secretary will be 4th frontbencher to step down
SNP MINISTER Aileen Campbell is to quit Nicola Sturgeon’s Government, she announced last night.
In a devastating blow to the SNP leader, her Communities and Local Government Secretary said she would stand down at the next election to spend more time with her young family.
Ms Campbell, a mother of two, is the fourth member of the Cabinet to walk away. Five MSPs have also told the First Minister they will not stand for re-election next year.
Her decision will reignite the debate about the pressure frontline politics piles on family life, after former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson and
Nationalist MSP Gail Ross also announced they would not stand again in 2021, citing similar reasons.
Last night, Ms Campbell said: ‘Just as Scotland has changed significantly for the better since 2007, so have my personal circumstances.
‘I have got married and have been blessed with two beautiful boys, who are
growing up fast. My husband [Fraser] and I are very fortunate – we managed to find ways for me to do my job and have a family at the same time, with Fraser taking on most of the day-to-day parenting.
‘But there is no getting away from the fact that the job, while immensely rewarding, is demanding in terms of pressure and time.
‘I hope in future I can spend a little more time with my boys at home.
‘So, after much consideration, now feels like a good time to prepare myself for taking a step back from frontline party politics and government.
‘Once I stand down I look forward to new challenges and, I hope, a better work-life balance.
‘Until then, I will continue to work tirelessly for my constituents, and I will be pleased to continue serving in the Cabinet for as long as the First Minister wants me to.’
As Minister in charge of councils, Ms Campbell, 39, presides over a budget of more than £12 billion, and has been seen as one of Ms Sturgeon’s most reliable frontbench figures – and a possible future leader of the SNP.
Her shock decision comes less than a month since shamed Derek Mackay resigned as Finance Secretary after sending inappropriate text messages to a 16-year-old boy.
Ms Campbell’s departure also comes as the First Minister faces a growing crisis at Westminster, with an escalating civil war among her MPs. Meanwhile, tomorrow sees the beginning of the trial of Ms Sturgeon’s former mentor, Alex Salmond, over a catalogue of sex crime allegations. Mr Salmond denies all of the charges.
Ms Sturgeon’s Government has been dogged by resignations and Ministers standing down.
Apart from Ms Campbell and Mr Mackay, Mark McDonald was forced to resign as Childcare Minister in 2017 after creating ‘an intimidating, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment’ for a woman by sending a text message referencing a sex act.
Constitution Secretary Mike Russell has announced he will not stand for re-election next year.
He will lead a glut of Nationalist MSPs standing down in 2021, including Bruce Crawford, Gail Ross, James Dornan, Richard Lyle and Stewart Stevenson.
Mr McDonald has also confirmed he will not seek re-election, while there is speculation Mr Mackay will soon leave parliament on illhealth grounds. Both men, now independent MSPs, are expected to pocket £50,000 exit packages.
Ms Campbell, of Biggar, Lanarkthe shire, was parliamentary assistant to Ms Sturgeon between July 2005 and March 2006, before doing the same job for former Health Secretary Shona Robison.
In the 2007 election, when the SNP seized power at Holyrood for
first time, Ms Campbell was elected on the South of Scotland list. At 26, she was the youngest MSP elected that year.
She was re-elected in 2011, this time winning the Clydesdale seat, and was rewarded with the job of Minister for Local Government and Planning. Later that year she became Minister for Children and spearheaded the controversial Named Person scheme.
In 2014, she became the first Minister to take maternity leave.
On her return, she went straight back into her Ministerial role and was later appointed Minister for Public Health, before being promoted to her current role. It was not clear last night whether she planned to stay on as an MSP. Her resignation is a blow to Ms Sturgeon, as her Government struggles under growing concerns about falling education standards, a water contamination scandal at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and the failure to open the new children’s hospital in Edinburgh.
Police have complained about mouldy stations, while councils fear the new Budget will force both tax hikes and public service cuts.
Ms Sturgeon has also been accused of ‘running scared of her own membership’ by opponents, after the annual spring conference, due to be held in June, was scaled back to just one day.
‘Job demanding in terms of pressure and time’ ‘Look forward to a better work-life balance’