The holder of what may be the most exotic sounding government post in UK politics, Mairi Gougeon is a young and ambitious member of the SNP’s frontbench. Gougeon arrived in Holyrood as an MSP in 2016, gaining the rural affairs brief in 2018. She replaced public health and sport secretary Joe FitzPatrick two years later after a rise in drug deaths, earning a further promotion to her current post in 2021.
