So happy ... SNP’s Shona mends broken heart with new man in her life
SHE endured the very public breakdown of her 20-year marriage with quiet dignity.
Now Health Secretary Shona Robison has found happiness again in a new relationship.
The prominent SNP politician – one of Nicola Sturgeon’s closest friends and most trusted allies within the party – has been spotted strolling arm-in-arm with Dundee charity worker and Yes campaigner Mike Strachan.
Friends told The Scottish Mail on Sunday that the pair had grown close in recent months.
One said: ‘They are really happy in each other’s company. They have loads in common and make a lovely couple.’
Another said: ‘Shona has had tremendous support from friends, colleagues and family over the past few months.
‘I’m really pleased for Shona and Mike – and it’s great to see them so happy together.’
Ms Robison’s husband, Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie, was at the centre of a political storm in May after details emerged of his affair with a 36-year-old political blogger and former actress, Serena Cowdy.
At 47, Ms Robison’s new boyfriend is six years younger than Mr Hosie. He runs a charity, called Dundee the Caring City, which supplies aid to refugees. An enthusiastic pro-independence campaigner, he quit his job running a pet shop to man a Yes stall for 14 hours a day in the lead-up to the 2014 referendum.
In his spare time, Mr Strachan also helps out in the office of Nationalist MP Chris Law.
Last week, Mr Strachan declined to comment on the fledgling relationship when approached by The Scottish Mail on Sunday – but smiled broadly whenever Ms Robison’s name was mentioned.
The couple have made no secret of their relationship and have been spotted strolling in public together and even cuddling in the street in Dundee.
Born in Redcar, North Yorkshire, 50-year-old Ms Robison was educated at Alva Academy and Glasgow University before taking a series of jobs as a community worker in Glasgow.
She was elected as MSP for the North East in the first Scottish parliament election in 1999 and became MSP for Dundee East in 2003.
After a spell as SNP health and social justice spokesman, she was appointed Public Health Minister when the party took power in 2007. She was re-elected in 2011 and appointed Commonwealth Games and Sport Minister. She has been Health Secretary since November 2014.
Mr Hosie and Ms Robison have a young daughter together and have known one another since the 1980s.
But the party was rocked in May by news of his affair with Ms Cowdy, who had previously been in a relationship with married Western Isles MP Angus McNeil, 46.
Ms Cowdy was said to have described Nationalist MPs as romantic revolutionaries who were ‘the sexy Mujahideen of British politicians’. Mr Hosie
‘It’s great to see them so happy together’
stepped down as deputy SNP leader and Ms Sturgeon insisted it was a voluntary decision.
Mr Hosie wrote to the First Minister apologising for the ‘hurt and upset I have caused to friends, family and colleagues’.
He cited the ‘stress of the intense scrutiny of my private life’ and ‘high blood pressure’ as reasons for quitting.
Mr Hosie and Ms Cowdy are understood to still be in a relationship. They have attended events at Westminster as a couple and she has posted pictures of them together on Facebook.
Ms Cowdy has reportedly told friends that she is in love and wants the pair to have a future together.