SNP Housing Secretary Mairi McAllan said that she would “consider” being deputy first minister if asked.

Kate Forbes, who presently holds the post, will stand down at May’s Holyrood elections, creating a vacancy that Ms McAllan, who is already tipped as a future SNP leader, could fill.

The 32-year-old former South Lanarkshire councillor and special adviser to former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was elected to Holyrood in 2021, spending just two weeks on the back benches before Ms Sturgeon made her a junior environment minister.

Promoted to the cabinet by Humza Yousaf as net zero secretary, she scrapped interim climate targets before going on to take on the housing brief when it was made a cabinet role by John Swinney.

Asked if she was willing to step up into the role of deputy first minister in May, she said: “I’ve considered every position that I’ve ever been offered in my party and in government – I would consider it.

“I always want to do my best for the SNP and for Scotland, so I would consider any offers post-election.

“But I’m focused just now on trying to get re-elected in Clydesdale.”