TRANSPORT Minister Kevin Stewart has quit government citing mental health struggles.
The Aberdeen Central MSP said he made the decision with a "heavy heart" but that he could no longer put in the hours required to serve both his constituents and hold ministerial office, "whilst also trying to maintain good mental health."
He had only been in post for two months, but had served in government since 2016, with stinst as the minister for local government, housing and planning and as minister for mental wellbeing and social care.
In that latter role, he was largely responsible for the Scottish Government flagship but troubled National Care Service.
In a letter to the First Minister, Mr Stewart said it had been the "greatest honour of my life to serve the people of Scotland in three ministerial positions under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon and yourself."
He told Mr Yousaf he had been suffering "bouts of poor mental health" since last October, with a "low ebb in early December of last year."
He added: "Over the last week or so I have once again been feeling unwell and I feel that I can no longer put in the hours required to serve both my constituents and hold ministerial office, whilst also trying to maintain good mental health. I do hope that you understand.
"You can be assured that I will continue to serve my Aberdeen Central constituents to the very best of my ability and will continue to support you and your government from the backbenchers."
Mr Yousaf said he was sorry to accept the resignation.
In a letter to Mr Stewart, he said: "Many people underestimate the pressure on Ministers and I understand why you have felt the need to leave government to concentrate on your mental health and much loved constituency.
"You leave with a record you can be proud of. As well as taking on transport in the last two months where you invested in buses and focused on improving the position on ferries, your previous roles have benefitted from your expertise and experience. "
He added: "Personally, I will miss you in government and I know you will be of huge benefit to our backbenches, within our great party, and will remain a source of counsel for many, myself included.
"I wish you all the very best and please know we are here to provide whatever support we can with your mental health."
ASLEF, the train drivers' union, wished Mr Stewart well but urged Mr Yousaf to make his successor a full member of the cabinet.
In a statement, they said: "ASLEF understands the scale and complexity of the Transport brief and the obvious difficulties for any Minister in keeping on top of it.
"Transport is a huge brief, rail itself is a massive and complex policy area. When Humza Yousaf appointed his Cabinet recently we rightly criticised him for his glaring omission of not having any Minister round the Cabinet Table with Transport directly included in their title.
"Transport overall is a hugely important policy area and it simply beggars belief that the Scottish Government has no Cabinet Minister with direct responsibility for Transport.
"The First Minister has the opportunity to rectify his mistake and ensure when replacing Kevin Stweart that he adjusts his cabinet and ensures that there is a Minister with obvious responsibility for Transport, as well as a Minister for Rail. We urge him to do so when he replaces Kevin Stewart."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel