Resilient, quick-witted and without filter, Kenny Gibson has all the qualities to reform failing Holyrood

Today, the Nationalists dominate Scotland’s largest city but on the lost continent of 1995 Labour was still in the weighing votes game.

Against seemingly impossible odds, the SNP candidate for Mosspark didn’t just win his seat, he did so with the biggest majority of any member.

Two years later, hired by The Scotsman to cover the council, I was to meet this star of the SNP.

I noticed the way he moved, first, barreling towards me along the councillor’s corridor in the same Simian gait as the stand-up comic Lee Evans, arms swinging, head cocked.

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He stopped walking later than I’d imagined he might, his face uncomfortably close to mine when he spoke.

“Alright? Kenny Gibson.”

I liked the then 36-year-old leader of the Glasgow City Council SNP Group (he had, by that point, been joined by three defectors from Labour) immediately. He was disarming, self-deprecating and, when we went to the pub later that day and I asked what he was having, he replied “Cointreau and lemonade” as if it had been a stupid question.

Back then, Gibson’s pioneering victory in a city half Celtic green, half Rangers blue and almost entirely Labour red, marked him out as someone going places within the SNP. But, during two spells as an MSP (from 1999-2003 as a member for the Glasgow region and, since 2007, as the member for Cunningham North) he remained on the backbenches.

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Now, aged 64, Gibson has the place in the political spotlight denied to him by successive SNP leaders.

After defeating the Scottish Government’s preferred candidate, fellow nationalist MSP Clare Haughey, Gibson is Holyrood’s new Presiding Officer and early indications are that he intends to make something of the job.

Gibson’s first act in his new role is a complete revamp of First Minister’s Question Time. What had, since the establishment of the devolved parliament 27 years ago, been a single weekly event has been cut in two.

Henceforth, Swinney will have to endure two 30 minute sessions each week. He’ll face backbenchers on Tuesdays and opposition leaders on Thursdays.

The delicious twist is that there will be no more prepublication of questions.

Asked for his reaction to these innovations, the First Minister declared “bring it on” with all the conviction of a man who did not wish it to be brought on.

Alison Johnstone, who Gibson replaces, was a poor Presiding Officer, flat-footed, humourless and - if her frequent pointless checking of MSPs on matters of tone was anything to go by - unable to understand either the nature or the purpose of political debate.

During the Johnstone era, the Scottish Government had an especially easy ride, with too few backbenchers being given the opportunity to hold ministers to account. Those who did get the chance to speak could often be heard inviting John Swinney or one of his predecessors to explain why things were going swimmingly during this glorious SNP era.

After being elected by his fellow MSPs, Gibson said he would “shake up” how the parliament did business in order to “make government more accountable to parliament, improve scrutiny and deliver more effectively for the people we represent”.

The collegiate atmosphere - political opponents working together across the chamber - anticipated in the 1990s before devolution had not “fully transpired”, said Gibson and, this being so, he was “keen to push at the boundaries of what’s possible within my remit”.

We will judge the new Presiding Officer by his actions but his election gives grounds for cautious optimism.

It would be a stretch to say I know Gibson especially well but I’ve certainly spent enough time in his company to persuade me that he has the qualities required for the job.

Make no mistake, Gibson is a substantial politician. That he has spent the best part of three decades being passed over for promotion by leaders of his party is no reflection on his intellect.

Gibson is quick-witted and - especially useful in the early days of his career when he was a lone SNP figure in Labour Glasgow - cunning.

Opponents who knew the new Presiding Officer in his council days tell a story of the too-good-to-check variety which had him checking forthcoming city plans, campaigning for changes he knew were coming, then claiming credit when they went ahead, as scheduled.

Labour figures who share this story do so with nothing but admiration and affection. They recognise an operator when they see one.

You will find, too, countless opponents who speak approvingly of Gibson’s convenorship of Holyrood’s powerful finance committee.

The thing that made the Scottish Parliament’s seventh Presiding Officer unsuitable for ministerial office is something that will serve him, and Holyrood, well: Kenny Gibson has no filter.

Gibson does not merely say what he thinks, he shouts it. He has a finely tuned bullsh**-detector and an admirable history of pointing it in the direction of SNP ministers.

But Gibson is no default-setting political bruiser. There is a gentleness in his character that might not be apparent at first glance.

This was evident in his dealings with despairing council tenants three decades ago and it remains a striking aspect of his character.

Interviewed by Holyrood magazine two years ago, Gibson spoke of his loss of two sons, one stillborn in 2009 and a second passing in 2023.

“It’s hard,” he said, “but I am resilient. Resilience is important in life, otherwise it can overwhelm you.”

Rereading those words last week I remembered the day Gibson told me of that first tragedy. We bumped into each other in Holyrood’s garden lobby and it all came tumbling out. He was broken-hearted, angry, tearful.

I offered my condolences. He smiled and squeezed my arm, he reassuring me.

Kenny Gibson may lack the polish to have become a cabinet minister but he could be the great, reforming Presiding Officer our failing Scottish Parliament needs.