John Swinney was a 'lame duck' as Education Secretary and faces a 'hell of a challenge' in his new Covid recovery role, a new Labour MSP has said.

Mr Swinney was this week moved from his education role and appointed as Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery as part of the reshuffle.

It came after Scottish Labour called for Nicola Sturgeon to drop Mr Swinney from his brief following "five years of drift and decline" under his leadership.

But new Labour MSP Paul Sweeney said that the reshuffle was "a way of saving face", and said he was "always going to be a damaged individual" in that role.

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Speaking exclusively on this week's episode of The Brian Taylor Podcast, Mr Sweeney said: "I think it was only the weights of the threats of a vote of no confidence in his stewardship of the SQA crisis that prompted any recognition that there was even a problem.

"I think he was always going to be a damaged individual in that role and was, I suppose, a way of saving face that he was reshuffled in the way it was.

"But he was a kind of a lame duck in that role and had been for the best part of a year.

"We'll see how he performs in this new role overseeing the Covid recovery, but it's going to be a hell of a challenge, particularly in a city like Glasgow, which is seeing significant challenges with managing Covid, and also rolling out the vaccinations, which is lagging significantly behind the rest of the country."

He was joined by SNP MP Alison Thewliss and Scottish Conservatives MSP Miles Briggs in the episode, which is available on all major streaming sites.

In response, Ms Thewliss said: "It has been an incredibly difficult year for everybody all around, and John Swinney has managed that as best as he possibly could in incredibly difficult circumstances.

"Nobody knew exactly how the pandemic would unfold, nobody certainly expected that we'd still be facing the challenges that we are today when the first lockdowns were announced last year.

"I've got a huge amount of respect for John Swinney for how he has tried to manage that."

The trio spoke to Brian Taylor and Alistair Grant of The Herald's esteemed politics team in this week's episode, where the focus was placed on the cabinet reshuffling as well as the ongoing Covid situation in Glasgow and Moray, upon which Nicola Sturgeon is due to make a statement about later this afternoon.

They also spoke about violent scenes that descended on Glasgow's George Square at the weekend following Rangers' lifting the Premiership trophy.