SNP’s Kenneth Gibson voted in as Scottish Parliament’s new presiding officer

SNP MSP Kenny Gibson has been voted in as presiding officer to the Scottish Parliament.

Four members put themselves forward for the role: Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur, who served as a deputy presiding officer for the previous five years; and SNP members Kenny Gibson, Stuart McMillan, and Clare Haughey.

After three rounds of voting, Gibson received 74 votes and Ms Haughey received 54 votes, while McMillan was eliminated in the first round with six votes, and McArthur was eliminated in the second round with 34 votes.

The presiding officer role involves overseeing debates at Holyrood along with the weekly session of First Minister’s Questions.

The leaders of Scotland’s main political parties have all been formally sworn in as MSPs – with the SNP’s John Swinney taking the opportunity to declare his “primary loyalty” to the “people of Scotland.

As the leader of the largest party, he was the first of the 129 MSPs to take the oath.

And while the SNP’s tally of MSPs may be down from 64 to 58, Swinney is still expected to be formally re-elected as Scotland’s first minister in a vote at Holyrood next week.

A week after the Scottish Parliament elections, Swinney and all other MSPs who were voted in lined up for the oath of office, pledging their “true allegiance” to King Charles and his successors.

Swinney, however, said: “Before I take my oath, let me pledge that the primary loyalty of the Scottish National Party is to the people of Scotland, in line with the constitutional principle of the sovereignty of the people.”

Next to take the oath was Reform UK’s Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord, whose party is the joint second largest in the chamber.

With both Reform and Scottish Labour having 17 MSPs, alphabetical order was used to determine which of the two leaders went next.

Lord Offord took his oath, followed by Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar.

However, ahead of the ceremony, campaigners at Stand Up To Racism Scotland staged a small demo outside Holyrood, branding Reform as being “racist through and through”.

While the Reform MSPs had already entered the Parliament building before the protesters arrived, Scottish Green co-leaders Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer showed their support as they walked into the building.

The Green co-leaders took their oaths after the party secured its best-ever Holyrood result in the election, with Mr Greer declaring their “ultimate loyalty” is “not to King or Crown, but to the people of Scotland”.

Similarly, Mackay said: “My oath is to the people of Scotland, who are sovereign.”

The Scottish Green co-leaders were followed by Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay, and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton.

Green MSP Q Manivannan, who is in the process of applying for a new visa to serve a full parliamentary term, referred to Scotland as their “bonnie, bonnie home”.

As well as taking oaths in English, a number of MSPs used additional languages when taking their oath, with the SNP’s Karen Adam using British Sign Language, which she learned as a child to help her communicate with her deaf father.

Green Highlands and Islands MSP Ariane Burgess took her oath in Scottish Gaelic, while North East Scotland MSP Maggie Chapman spoke in Shona, the most common language in Zimbabwe, where she was born and brought up.

New Liberal Democrat MSP Yi-pei Chou Turvey, who was born in Taiwan and raised in Brussels, took her oath in both Mandarin and French, while fellow newly elected Lib Dem Sanne Dijkstra Downie, who grew up in the Netherlands, used Dutch.