John Swinney is the right man at the right time for the SNP and Scotland

He deserves credit for having the courage to take on the responsibility of dealing with multiple crises at once. And he deserves further credit for taking on the role of First Minister knowing the racist attacks on him would multiply many times over.

Leading the party while Operation Branchform rumbles on and the culture war seemingly engulfs every piece of Scottish Government legislation was never going to be an easy gig.

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I have no doubt that but for that one decision to end the Bute House Agreement, he would have remained First Minister and have seen us through this difficult period.

I did not agree with that decision but we are all entitled to view things differently. Very few of us have had everything come crashing down around them for one decision, however.

As I said to Humza recently, politics is utterly brutal. I also told him I would not rule out the possibility of him being in that role again at some point in the future. Whether he’d want to put himself through all that again is another matter but it’s definitely not inconceivable.

Which takes me to John Swinney (below).

When I heard that John was open to standing for the leadership of the SNP, it was a massive surprise but one that, suddenly, just made sense. I tried not to get my hopes up but I knew in that moment that John Swinney was exactly what this party, this movement and this country of ours needed.

Best of all, I have known John for a very long time – not as well as I know his two predecessors but well enough – and I know that status matters not a jot to him. I know he has done this for us.

I worked for the SNP during John’s leadership of the party in the early 2000s. He was a great leader then, contrary to the commentary.

His downfall then was that he was perceived not to have the media charisma we have become so obsessed with.

Having been at the heart of the party during that period, I watched the progression of that narrative. My colleagues and I at SNP HQ at the time watched in dismay as it gathered a head of steam and then one day we arrived at work to find dozens of journalists all gathered to hear him stand down.

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We were devastated because he was exceptional in that role but he was being prevented from doing it properly and did the right thing in order to let the party progress.

There is something very fitting about John Swinney now being the First Minister of Scotland and defying the critics of that time.

More importantly, the opportunity to reset political relationships, and our relationship with the public now must be grasped with both hands.

There is no doubt that over the past few decades, there has been steady decline in people’s trust in politics in general. But the fracture in the SNP’s relationship with voters has been much more recent and I hope and believe it is more readily reparable.

Seventeen years is a long time to have been in government – especially when a huge portion of your time is spent mitigating Tory policies aimed at hurting your most vulnerable citizens.

Scotland is in a much better place today because of the work of the SNP in government than it would be were we directly under Tory Westminster rule. That is scant consolation for those struggling in Scotland though who rightly look to the Scottish Government for answers.

The proximity of Holyrood to the people of Scotland compared to Westminster means that it’s regularly the focus of people’s ire even if the source of their frustration emanates from elsewhere.

Austerity is a Westminster decision taken in London and inflicted on everyone else. Brexit, another decision imposed on the people of Scotland against our will. Liz Truss? Well, you know where I’m going with this.

I don’t envy my colleagues in Holyrood. We fight these decisions in Westminster but it is they who have to deal with the fallout and quite often shoulder the blame for the lack of funding available to deliver the services people desperately need.

All the while the opposition benches demand more money for everything without ever producing a budget of their own to show where that money would come from.

That’s why John Swinney’s first couple of weeks have seemed like the fresh start the party needs. He has hit all the right notes with the party membership. And his commitment to tackling stagnant economic growth in order to do all the things we want our government to do – ie eradicate child poverty, pay decent wages and properly fund public services – will, I believe, cut through with the public.

There are two years of this Holyrood term left and John has been at pains to express that his focus will be on delivering more of those concrete actions that improve people’s lives right now.

A good media cycle is no use to the single parent struggling to put food on the table – people would much rather we were all getting on with making their lives better than hear us on TV talking about what we might someday do.

Building homes needs to be at the top of the agenda for addressing poverty – you can’t escape poverty without a roof over your head.

In my constituency in Glasgow North East, housing is one of the biggest issues people come to me with and despite everything I know our SNP council is doing, the problem is getting worse. We need to direct funding to the places with the greatest need and the ability to deliver at pace.

As a Glasgow MP, you would expect me to say this – but if you reduce poverty, health inequality and address the housing crisis in Glasgow, you will make a bigger dent in those national statistics than you ever will anywhere else.

Glasgow has been referred to as Scotland’s problem, but properly funded, it will be Scotland’s salvation.

That, readers, will be my elevator pitch to our fantastic new First Minister.