Profile: Who is Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay?

Indeed, like fellow co-leader Ross Greer, Ms Mackay does eat meat, while neither she nor Mr Greer have seen wearing sandals around Holyrood.

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But could she be described, as said by the former SNP MSP Fergus Ewing, who now sits as an independent MSP, as a 'wine bar revolutionary'?

"Well I've never seen her in a wine bar," one party insider tells me.

"The only time I've seen her drinking wine was at her own wedding."

Revolutionary though may be a more apt description as she radically wants to change the society in which we live by tackling climate change and wealth distribution.

The 34-year-old grew up in Grangemouth - her childhood bedroom overlooked the plant.

After school she studied marine biodiversity and biotechnology at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh.

She entered politics after taking up an Inclusion Scotland internship with the MSP Alison Johnstone (now presiding officer) to encourage disabled people into the profession, joining the party in 2015.

Ms Mackay has the sensory disorder Ménière’s disease, which affects balance and hearing. “That was the start of my journey with the Greens,” she recalled in an interview this summer “and I’ve never really looked back.”

Ms Mackay became the Greens' first ever parliamentarian for Central Scotland at the 2021 Holyrood election.

As business manager, she played a vital role in the BHA’s operation – mostly using her good people skills to smooth any ruffled feathers between the parties when things did not go to plan.

She has also managed to stay above some of the internal disagreements about the Greens’ time in government.

Her profile was boosted significantly by the passage of her Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill, a member’s bill which introduced buffer zones around healthcare settings which provide abortions.

The bill was overwhelmingly passed by the Scottish Parliament, by 118 to 1 in its final vote with Ms Mackay praised for her ability to build rare cross party consensus in Holyrood for the measure.

This law drew the ire of the vice president of the US, but that will help to bolster her reputation within the Greens membership.

During her campaign to become Greens co-leader she pledged to broaden her party's appeal beyond middle-class urbanites by talking to voters in industrial towns facing wholesale job losses.

She said her around Falkirk had been devastated by industrial decline, including the closure of Grangemouth oil refinery earlier this year, yet the Scottish Greens historically had failed to connect with local voters.

Since becoming Scottish Greens co-leader she has pledged to seek to return her party to government (so long as the party backs that aim) and to turn her attention to decriminalising abortion should she be re-elected as an MSP next year.

Ms Mackay has held various positions across the party including as co-chair of Scottish Young Green.

Outside politics she is currently enjoying maternity leave from Holyrood after giving birth to her first child, baby boy Callan, in June.

She is also a massive fan of Star Wars and is part of a Star Wars charity costume group through which she met her husband Alex.

The couple got engaged at Disney World (Disney is another love outside of politics), telling The National last year: "Disney parks are my happy place, which is probably a really un-Green thing to say, but I absolutely love a theme park."

She is also a sports fan, playing hockey and rugby at university, and is a supporter Brora Rangers FC. Her father grew up in the village of Brora in the Highlands and she regularly visited the area as a child.