Mairi McAllan is a woman of intriguing contrasts. At just 31, having only been a Member of the Scottish Parliament since 2021, she has one of the toughest and most expansive jobs in the SNP government, as the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy. Despite this stellar ascent, she describes herself as “a reluctant politician”. Friends confirm this, saying she almost had to be press-ganged into standing by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, for whom she was a special adviser.
McAllan trained in the cut-throat world of corporate law, but also helped set up RebLaw Scotland in 2017, a movement that originated in the US with the aim of putting social justice at the heart of the legal system. And for someone working on the front line of Scotland’s particularly divided political culture, she carries herself a little differently to most, being softly spoken and emanating a priestly self-possession. “I’m quite quiet – I think empathy is the most important thing you can possibly have as a politician,” she says. In a party known for its youthful (and not so youthful) firebrands, this further sets her apart.
McAllan grew up in urban Scotland but now lives on a hill farm, where she gets stuck into the lambing and calving. She has also recently acquired some chickens. Has she given them names? “They’re all called Isa,” she tells me, “because the breed is ISA Brown. I didn’t want to get too attached just in case there’s a little fox that shows itself.”
There is a much more important matter that must be attended to, though. McAllan and her husband Iain, who have been together since school, are expecting their first child at the end of July, and she expects to return from maternity leave next March. Given she was promoted to her new post only in February this year, she doesn’t have much time to put her stamp on it before the looming break.
She is, therefore, a woman in a hurry. Indeed, she arrives at her office late for our interview, apologising for “huffing and puffing” after having to rush down to an unexpected vote in the Holyrood chamber. What does she make of the clash between her professional ambitions and current personal circumstances? Her brow furrows. “I feel quite a lot of responsibility. In one way, you want to be ‘yeah, we can do this’. Nobody should ever assume women can’t have a top position in whatever organisation and have a baby, but on the other side you shouldn’t airbrush the fact that it is difficult. Women are struggling with it all over the country. So, it’s a balance. Pregnancy definitely does drain your energy ever so slightly, and I’ve obviously been trying to get up to speed with a new and enlarged portfolio at the same time.”
She might have been forgiven for having mixed feelings when Humza Yousaf offered her the job. “I know, but how could I complain that he gave the pregnant lady more work as opposed to what might have happened in previous decades where you were written off?”
To that end, McAllan is doing what she can while she can – she needs to, as the economy has long been seen as a weak spot for the SNP, and there is broad scepticism that the government will meet its ambitious net zero targets.
She says her legal training is informing her approach to the economic aspect of her brief, and the government’s attempts to fix its poor relationship with the business community. “I have probably had one of the hardest-line commercial trainings that you could get. The rigour, attention to detail and commerciality that is required to become a corporate lawyer – I will work to bring that into this position. As a corporate solicitor you were essentially an extension of your business clients’ job or project, and it was your job to navigate the law, help them get it over the line. So as part of the reset with government I see that as part of my role and I will determinedly pursue it.”
She has inherited “a cluttered landscape” on economic policy. “One of the principle things I want to achieve is a decluttering, a determined focus on the actions that are going to drive the greatest results, and stripping out prose and theory and strategy and just [having] a clear focus on actions that we can take forward and seek to deliver.” She has committed to tackling inclusivity in the labour market, bringing more women and those on long-term sickness benefits into the workplace. “That is untapped potential as far as I’m concerned, working with employers and those who are furthest from the labour market to see what’s preventing you from coming back in.”
>bringing…those on long-term sickness benefits into the workplace
🤨
She wasn’t a reluctant politician. She stood before Sturgeon gave her a leg up. Her father is an SNP member (obviously). The spin of all the people in the SNP is that they are very “reluctant” despite almost none of them actually having careers outside politics. She became a special adviser, that is why she is an MSP.
She was a lawyer for a short time in corporate law in Scotland. It isn’t cut-throat, it doesn’t give you “commercial training”, we are a capitalist economy but there is no-one running the country who has a job like most of the population.
It is fine to be ambitious but the act isn’t particularly convincing. Reluctant politician who…tried to go into politics whilst at university, went into politics after two years working a normal job, and tried to become leader of the party…about a year after joining Parliament. Seriously? It is more insulting that politicians think people believe this.
We have someone making economic policy decisions who has had never had a real job, is in their early 30s, and is trying to say being a lawyer for two years gave them the commercial training to run the economy…I can’t think why the SNP doesn’t have economic policy credibility.
The only policy that she actually talks about is one that the Tories are already doing. Nothing specific, just a “declutter”, like cleaning out the attic. Genius work.
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Mairi McAllan is a woman of intriguing contrasts. At just 31, having only been a Member of the Scottish Parliament since 2021, she has one of the toughest and most expansive jobs in the SNP government, as the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy. Despite this stellar ascent, she describes herself as “a reluctant politician”. Friends confirm this, saying she almost had to be press-ganged into standing by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, for whom she was a special adviser.
McAllan trained in the cut-throat world of corporate law, but also helped set up RebLaw Scotland in 2017, a movement that originated in the US with the aim of putting social justice at the heart of the legal system. And for someone working on the front line of Scotland’s particularly divided political culture, she carries herself a little differently to most, being softly spoken and emanating a priestly self-possession. “I’m quite quiet – I think empathy is the most important thing you can possibly have as a politician,” she says. In a party known for its youthful (and not so youthful) firebrands, this further sets her apart.
McAllan grew up in urban Scotland but now lives on a hill farm, where she gets stuck into the lambing and calving. She has also recently acquired some chickens. Has she given them names? “They’re all called Isa,” she tells me, “because the breed is ISA Brown. I didn’t want to get too attached just in case there’s a little fox that shows itself.”
There is a much more important matter that must be attended to, though. McAllan and her husband Iain, who have been together since school, are expecting their first child at the end of July, and she expects to return from maternity leave next March. Given she was promoted to her new post only in February this year, she doesn’t have much time to put her stamp on it before the looming break.
She is, therefore, a woman in a hurry. Indeed, she arrives at her office late for our interview, apologising for “huffing and puffing” after having to rush down to an unexpected vote in the Holyrood chamber. What does she make of the clash between her professional ambitions and current personal circumstances? Her brow furrows. “I feel quite a lot of responsibility. In one way, you want to be ‘yeah, we can do this’. Nobody should ever assume women can’t have a top position in whatever organisation and have a baby, but on the other side you shouldn’t airbrush the fact that it is difficult. Women are struggling with it all over the country. So, it’s a balance. Pregnancy definitely does drain your energy ever so slightly, and I’ve obviously been trying to get up to speed with a new and enlarged portfolio at the same time.”
She might have been forgiven for having mixed feelings when Humza Yousaf offered her the job. “I know, but how could I complain that he gave the pregnant lady more work as opposed to what might have happened in previous decades where you were written off?”
To that end, McAllan is doing what she can while she can – she needs to, as the economy has long been seen as a weak spot for the SNP, and there is broad scepticism that the government will meet its ambitious net zero targets.
She says her legal training is informing her approach to the economic aspect of her brief, and the government’s attempts to fix its poor relationship with the business community. “I have probably had one of the hardest-line commercial trainings that you could get. The rigour, attention to detail and commerciality that is required to become a corporate lawyer – I will work to bring that into this position. As a corporate solicitor you were essentially an extension of your business clients’ job or project, and it was your job to navigate the law, help them get it over the line. So as part of the reset with government I see that as part of my role and I will determinedly pursue it.”
She has inherited “a cluttered landscape” on economic policy. “One of the principle things I want to achieve is a decluttering, a determined focus on the actions that are going to drive the greatest results, and stripping out prose and theory and strategy and just [having] a clear focus on actions that we can take forward and seek to deliver.” She has committed to tackling inclusivity in the labour market, bringing more women and those on long-term sickness benefits into the workplace. “That is untapped potential as far as I’m concerned, working with employers and those who are furthest from the labour market to see what’s preventing you from coming back in.”
>bringing…those on long-term sickness benefits into the workplace
🤨
She wasn’t a reluctant politician. She stood before Sturgeon gave her a leg up. Her father is an SNP member (obviously). The spin of all the people in the SNP is that they are very “reluctant” despite almost none of them actually having careers outside politics. She became a special adviser, that is why she is an MSP.
She was a lawyer for a short time in corporate law in Scotland. It isn’t cut-throat, it doesn’t give you “commercial training”, we are a capitalist economy but there is no-one running the country who has a job like most of the population.
It is fine to be ambitious but the act isn’t particularly convincing. Reluctant politician who…tried to go into politics whilst at university, went into politics after two years working a normal job, and tried to become leader of the party…about a year after joining Parliament. Seriously? It is more insulting that politicians think people believe this.
We have someone making economic policy decisions who has had never had a real job, is in their early 30s, and is trying to say being a lawyer for two years gave them the commercial training to run the economy…I can’t think why the SNP doesn’t have economic policy credibility.
The only policy that she actually talks about is one that the Tories are already doing. Nothing specific, just a “declutter”, like cleaning out the attic. Genius work.