Jenny Gilruth: Who is the former teacher and rising SNP star tipped as potential first minister

The education secretary is seen as a potential successor to Humza Yousaf

Jenny Gilruth used to teach Scottish politics to school pupils in her modern studies classes.

If she now succeeds Humza Yousaf as first minister, as some have suggested, current and future cohorts will be taught about Ms Gilruth.

Becoming SNP leader would mark the culmination of a rapid rise to the top for the former teacher. With Mr Yousaf confirming his resignation on Monday, The Scotsman has taken a look at the life and career of Ms Gilruth to date.

What is her background?

Born in Aberdeen in 1984, Jennifer Gilruth spent her childhood in Banff before her family moved to Ceres in Fife.

She is a distant relative of former Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP Stewart Stevenson, with the pair both having served as transport minister.

Ms Gilruth attended Aberchirder Primary school in Aberdeenshire, Ceres Primary school in Fife and Madras College state secondary in St Andrews, which also counts Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, and Dundee West SNP MP Chris Law, as former pupils.

She went on to study politics and sociology at Glasgow University, before completing a postgraduate course in secondary education (modern studies). After university, she agreed to be sent anywhere in Scotland as a newly-qualified teacher, ending up at Elgin High in Moray, teaching modern studies.

She also worked for Education Scotland, as national qualifications development officer, and had spells teaching at the Royal High School in Edinburgh and as a head of department at St Columba's High School in Dunfermline.

Ms Gilruth married former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale in 2022.

How did she get involved in politics?

Ms Gilruth joined the SNP in 2007, the year the party first came to power at Holyrood, when she was 22.

She was active in the Mid Fife and Glenrothes branch as well as on the student wing of the party, serving on the national executive of the Young Scots for Independence.

Before teaching, Ms Gilruth worked for Tricia Marwick MSP in her constituency office, and also for the-then Scottish Executive as a graduate researcher in the Justice Department.

She was first elected as the MSP for the Mid Fife and Glenrothes constituency at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, succeeding Ms Marwick in the constituency. She served as a member of Holyrood’s justice committee and education committee in her first term.

When did she become a Scottish Government minister?

Having long been tipped for a ministerial job, Nicola Sturgeon appointed Ms Gilruth as minister for Europe, migration and international development as part of a mini-reshuffle in February 2020, following the resignation of Derek Mackay

After being re-elected in 2021, Ms Gilruth was appointed as minister for culture, Europe and international migration, before becoming minister for transport in January 2022. Mr Yousaf named the former teacher as Cabinet secretary for education and skills after he was elected First Minister in March last year.

What have been her toughest moments in Government?

Transport minister is known to be a difficult brief, and Ms Gilruth was left to confirm the target completion date for dualling the A9 between Perth and Inverness would not be met.

Questions were also raised after The Scotsman reported in November 2022 the Mid Fife and Glenrothes MSP had ordered a delay to long-planned rail works which would have halted all Fife to Edinburgh trains between Christmas and New Year.

Months later, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross raised the issue at First Minister's Questions, demanding an investigation into whether Ms Gilruth broke the ministerial code by intervening inappropriately to push back the disruptive upgrade in her constituency for political reasons.

Mr Ross said it looked like a "clear-cut sackable offence", alleging the decision had cost taxpayers £1 million to rearrange the work.

Ms Gilruth, who said she consulted Transport Scotland officials about whether she could make the decision and was given the go-ahead, was later cleared by Mr Yousaf. As education secretary, she has been criticised by some for failing to act urgently enough in the wake growing concerns over rising school violence.

In February, she came under fire after it emerged during a TV interview she had failed to read a report by a teaching union on school violence in Aberdeen.

Ms Gilruth has also faced questions over delays to long-planned education reforms, and has led the response to Scotland’s worst ever results in the OECD Pisa rankings.

What have been her highlights in office?

Emerging relatively unscathed from a posting as transport minister is an achievement in itself. Mr Stevenson, who said he was a distant relative of Ms Gilruth, famously resigned amid anger over disruption caused to the road network following heavy snow in 2010.

Ms Gilruth commissioned a report on the safety of women in transport and championed the issue. Since then, she has also won admirers for appearing to be “on top of her brief” as education secretary, in a year in which there have been multiple controversies to deal with, most of which were not of her making.

While some have characterised the lack of progress on education reform as evidence of indecision, in many ways it was a bold decision by Ms Gilruth to delay legislation on replacing the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Education Scotland, and to pause before making a ruling on the Hayward review, to further consult teachers. She did so within weeks of taking the job, saying she wanted to take the time to properly consider the various proposals on her desk.

Ms Gilruth’s promise to review Curriculum for Excellence also quelled demands for urgent action following the Pisa results at the end of last year, and she has been credited with protecting education spending, compared to other portfolios, in the most recent, bruising round of budget negotiations.