Dundee’s Shona Robison has revealed the personal side of a rollercoaster 27-year career on the political frontline as she prepares to step down at the next election.
In an exclusive interview with The Courier after announcing her plans, she reflected on the challenges, the emotional moments and the personal side of public office.
Perhaps hardest of all was the public breakdown of her marriage to fellow SNP politician Stewart Hosie in 2016.
It followed revelations Mr Hosie, then an MP, had engaged in an affair.
“It’s a nightmare,” Ms Robison explained over coffee at the Scottish Parliament.
“It’s bad enough when it happens to anybody, but when it’s played out in a very public way, it’s not where you want to be.
“I was particularly concerned for my daughter. She was in high school at the time and that was my main concern.”
Alongside her family, she credits the friendships inside her party with helping to overcome these challenges.
Those friendships have been an important part of Ms Robison’s career under four very different first ministers.
Described as Nicola Sturgeon’s closest friend in politics, the Dundee MSP was at her side when she was confirmed as first minister in 2014.
And when Humza Yousaf took over, it was Ms Robison who was again at the side of the new leader.
“I believe in loyalty,” she adds.
“Loyalty is really important in politics and to be loyal to your first minister.
“I hate this idea of ‘thoughts of the day’, just putting them out no matter the consequences. It feels self-indulgent.”
Ms Robison’s journey into the SNP can be compared with Scotland’s wider political journey.
As she stumbled into the SNP campaign rooms during the Govan by-election in 1988, a young Ms Robison didn’t expect joining the party would lead her to the top.
It wasn’t a natural choice. Her first vote in Stirling in 1982 as an 18-year-old had gone to Labour.
“When I was growing up, Labour were the all-dominant force – to the exclusion almost of everybody else. That was just the way it was,” she explained.
From Labour to the SNP
But like Scotland would decades later, she had grown disillusioned with Labour alongside a friend.
“We’d both been involved in Labour students but were both very disillusioned.
“We used to have debates with folk within Labour students at Glasgow University who wouldn’t recognise there was such a thing as Scottish culture.
“I just couldn’t fathom that. I just thought ‘I don’t feel at home here anymore’.”
With her friend she left and walked into the SNP campaign rooms. She had no way to know it then, but her journey to the SNP would see her join a new Scottish Parliament and end up inside the Scottish Government.
She credits a team of hardworking local activists – including councillor Willie Sawers – for turning the party’s fortunes around in Dundee.
“He is a machine and we ran a very effective campaign, both on knocking doors, getting voter ID and our messaging,” she says.
Ms Robison said the organisational capability proved itself at the General Election in 2024 when the SNP hung on despite a resurgent Labour party.
“When the election is going for you, people will be elected very easily,” she adds.
But she said that organisation base comes into its own when the race gets tight.
‘You can’t be complacent’
She added: “I keep saying to folk who come in here after an election – get your organisation sorted in your constituency, because it’s going to matter when things get tight.”
But does she worry some of the newer generation of SNP politicians – who have only known SNP dominance – aren’t prepared for a hard-fought campaign?
The MSP said: “At the start of every election campaign, we always say in Dundee is that we’re going to fight this election as if we’re behind.
“I’ve warned against complacency with colleagues, because many of them have come in on the crest of a wave, and have not had some of the really difficult elections.
“They might have got a bit of a taste of it in 2024, but the election next year, we absolutely need to be fighting every seat with the best organised campaign that we can muster. That is going to be critical.”
Ms Robison also reflected on some of the biggest challenges she faced in government.
Her ministerial career was paused in 2018 after three years as health secretary. She resigned following a period of intense scrutiny and criticism.
“Health secretary is by far the hardest job in government because it’s unpredictable,” she says.
“I was under sustained attack for the performance of the health service. And, you know, that’s politics. That’s what happens.
“That was quite difficult, week after week after week. And added to that, my mother and father were very ill. My mum passed away at the end of 2016 and my dad in 2017.
‘I run out of puff’
“Through that kind of latter part of being health secretary, that last two years, I just ran out of puff.”
Despite her long career and dedication to public service, Ms Robison has no intention of stepping away from the political fray completely.
“I didn’t want to retire from parliament feeling burnt out and feeling that I’m almost crawling out the door rather than walking out feeling full of energy for whatever comes next.”
She added: “I’m going to still be campaigning with the local party.
“I don’t think if you’re an elected politician, then you walk away from all of that never to be seen again. I don’t think that’s a good look.”
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