Senior SNP MP swipes at John Swinney for scrapping Minister for Independence

A senior SNP has had a swipe at John Swinney after he scrapped the minister for independence from the Scottish Government.

Alyn Smith said having Jamie Hepburn solely focusing on the independence brief "was really effective".

The role of minister for independence was created by previous first minister Humza Yousaf when he appointed his Government team last year.

Hepburn - the only person to have ever held the role - will now take over from George Adam as minister for parliamentary business.

When asked about the role being axed, Smith told BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "I'm not privy to John's thinking on that. The Westminster group had a meeting with John yesterday which was a good chance to chew the fat about where things are."

When asked if Swinney mentioned in the meeting he was going to scrap the job, Smith said: "No. Those discussions were internal anyway but we had a discussion with him about such matters."

He added: "I can only speak personally, but my view personally is that having Jamie Hepburn as the independence minister was really effective to focus government on getting the independence white papers out the door.

"There's been a series of them which I think need a much wider audience and greater attention.

"One particularly close to my heart, the Independence in Europe paper, really does go into the nuts and bolts of how we'll accede into the European Union."

The team of 14 ministers was announced late on Wednesday evening after new First Minister Swinney made his Cabinet appointments earlier in the day.

Swinney announced a largely unchanged Cabinet team, though Kate Forbes replaces Shona Robison as Deputy First Minister. Robison remained Finance Secretary.

Earlier this week Swinney said he would “seek, with respect and courtesy, to persuade people of the case for independence”.

On Thursday, Swinney will take part in First Minister’s Questions for the first time in the top job.

In his junior ministerial team, Forbes ally Ivan McKee has returned to Government as minister for public finance.

Minister for equalities, migration and refugees Emma Roddick and minister for local government empowerment and planning Joe Fitzpatrick - Humza Yousaf ally - have stepped down.

The Scottish Cabinet has 11 secretaries including the First Minister and is supported by 14 ministers. This has reduced the size of the Scottish Government by four since the start of the year.

Richard Lochhead is minister for business while Tom Arthur is minister for employment and investment, and Natalie Don is minister for children, young people and The Promise and Graeme Dey is minister for higher and further education.

Siobhian Brown is minister for victims and community safety and Gillian Martin is minister for climate action, while Jim Fairlie is minister for agriculture and connectivity.

The minister for public health and women’s health is Jenni Minto while Maree Todd is minister for social care, mental wellbeing and sport.

Christina McKelvie is minister for drugs and alcohol policy, the minister for equalities is Kaukab Stewart and Paul McLennan is minister for housing.

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