Outgoing MSPs leave Holyrood with relief, regret and unfinished business

On Wednesday, as the final speeches echo around the chamber at Holyrood, a record number of MSPs will be preparing to say goodbye.

A third of Scotland's MSPs - 42 - will walk out of the famous building for the last time, including former first ministers and first term MSPs.

Some leave with relief, some with regret, and some with a sense of unfinished business.

And while the parliament's veterans pass the baton, surprisingly young departures highlight the pressures of modern political life.

A few of the Class of 2026 share a glimpse of what it really costs to build a political career - and what it takes to walk away from one.

Two of those departing have reached the highest office in the land.

Both former first ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf made their final speeches at Holyrood this week as parliament put the finishing touches to a raft of legislation before dissolution.

In her farewell remarks Nicola Sturgeon gave advice to her younger self.

"Make friends in other parties. Opponents need not be enemies."

And she urged MSPs to keep a sense of perspective.

"If everything is a scandal or an outrage, nothing is, which means that those who deserve to be held to account get off scot free"

During last week's assisted dying debate Humza Yousaf observed that "less whipping" in the parliament might be a good thing.

He paid tribute to the quality of the speeches made on the basis of personal opinion rather than party political doctrine.

Yousaf admits he would have liked to have been first minister for longer than the 14 months he survived in post.

But he reckons "the general election would have come, we would have lost the number of seats we lost anyway and I suspect at that point it would have been very difficult for me to carry on."

The former SNP leader has some projects lined up at home and abroad and is writing a book about the four weeks his in-laws spent trapped in Gaza.

Yousaf recalled having to endure a bruising First Minister's Questions over Covid Whatsapp messages, just minutes after learning his wife's parents had been refused access to a flight to safety.

That has taught him "not to sweat the small stuff".

But he worries that the tenor and toxicity of social media commentary is putting women in particular off politics.

"If we don't confront it, we'll lose some of the best people, that could potentially make fantastic MSPs, across the political spectrum."

Several of those who are standing down have simply come to the end of their political careers, having first been elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Indeed just five MSPs who were present at the dawn of devolution are standing again.

First Minister John Swinney; Labour deputy Jackie Baillie; ex SNP minister now independent candidate Fergus Ewing; Labour's Pauline McNeill; and the SNP's Kenny Gibson will all seek another term at Holyrood.

But ministerial colleagues Shona Robison, Fiona Hyslop, and Richard Lochhead are among the original intake who have decided to call it a day.

At 81, it's perhaps not surprising that Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale MSP Christine Grahame is retiring.

She is regularly pictured by the television cameras sitting behind the first minister at question time.

It's a deliberate strategy she picked up from watching one of her MP colleagues.

"I realised he was making sure he was in direct camera line and I worked out that's what to do."

Her constituents think it's her seat, but she admits: "It's only my seat because I'm there early enough to nab it."

Grahame recommends politicians build cross-party relationships.

"In the chamber you play the ball, not the man. That's always my motto. Go for the argument. Don't go for anyone else. Outside the chamber, we're people."

The Lothian MSP Sarah Boyack was in Donald Dewar's first cabinet as Transport minister.

When she leaves - 27 years later - she'll act as a mentor for new MSPs after the election and will tell them not to underestimate what can be achieved.

"If you're in government you can make a difference every single day you're in this parliament.

"In opposition, you've got to work really hard, but you can still make progress."

However some of those standing down are relatively young.

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes is leaving because of the struggles of juggling motherhood with a ministerial job and an office that's more than three hours from home.

When she announced her decision to quit, she said she didn't want to "miss any more of the precious early years of family life".

Her daughter will be four this summer.

"Every day has felt like an exercise in logistical impossibilities and we got through it.

"It was like this epiphany and this bolt from the blue that I didn't have to.

"I had choices I could make."

She is choosing a life outside of politics.

As is the Children's Minister Natalie Don-Innes, who is leaving after just one term as an MSP.

She too has found it hard having to prioritise work over her two young children.

"You have to miss so much. I've missed parents nights. I've missed school shows, dances and discos."

She doesn't rule out a return to Holyrood in the future, but says more support is needed.

"If we want normal people to be in politics and to be in government, representing normal people out there in our communities, then we have to try to find ways to make it more accessible for everyone."

MSPs like Pam Duncan-Glancy, Colin Smyth, Foysol Choudhury and John Mason have had their party whip removed and won't return to Holyrood.

Others are leaving for health reasons, like the SNP's Ruth Maguire, who is living with cancer.

Two former party leaders are standing down.

Richard Leonard, who led Scottish Labour between 2017 and 2021, will continue to campaign for a "more democratic, more equal, socialist society" from outside parliament.

Douglas Ross, who resigned as Conservative leader during the last Westminster election campaign, is seeking a return to the House of Commons.

He has enjoyed ruffling feathers during his time at Holyrood.

"Part of the role of an opposition politician is not to make it easy for the government."

The Highlands and Islands MSP has spent 18 months as convener of Holyrood's education committee, where he led scrutiny of Dundee University's financial woes.

"I completely understand and accept that my style is not universally popular, but I think it has shown some people that you can have committees that are robust and agile to emerging issues.

"I think our committees here need to up their game a bit."

Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone has also confirmed that she is among the third of MSPs who will not run for another term.

Many more could be voted out by the electorate on 7 May.

But Johnstone remains in office until her successor is elected and will be in the chair as the new cohort of MSPs are sworn in.