NEWLY appointed housing secretary Mairi McAllan has dismissed “sniping” against First Minister John Swinney’s leadership in the wake of the SNP’s shock by-election defeat at Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse.

In the week since the Holyrood seat was unexpectedly lost to Labour’s Davy Russell, it has emerged that a group of angry party members have met to call for a change in direction and a fresh independence strategy ahead of next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.

Ms McAllan, who returned from maternity leave this week to be reshuffled into the newly created cabinet-level post of housing secretary, was however quick to defend her leader as “a man of empathy and kindness and experience.”

The people of Scotland, she said, “don’t particularly take kindly, I don’t think, to small groups of folks trying to cause instability in a government when people just want their government to get on with the job.”

She added: “Sniping and trying to cause instability, I think, is really unwelcome.

“A year ago our party wasn’t in a good place and John Swinney has stabilised our party.

“He has brought focus to the government.”