SCOTTISH economy secretary Mairi McAllan has announced she is expecting her first child.
McAllan, 31, revealed the news in an interview with the Sunday Mail newspaper.
She will take leave from her role as Wellbeing, Economy, Net Zero and Energy Secretary in the Scottish Government in July and told the newspaper she hopes to return to her post in March next year.
McAllan told the Sunday Mail she was around four months pregnant and is expecting the baby’s arrival in July.
She told the newspaper: “There was only so much longer I could hold in my stomach at work before letting people know.
“We are nearly five months on so there is not long to go before the baby is with us.
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“I am intending to take leave from July, so the start of summer recess at parliament, and the baby is due at the end of July, and then I will be coming back around Easter time the following year.
“I think it means a lot to women to see you can be in a leadership position in government and a 31-years-old mum at the same time and balance those two things.”
She married her childhood sweetheart Iain Renwick at the Biggar Kirk, South Lanarkshire last August.
McAllan will become the second cabinet secretary to take maternity leave after former finance secretary Kate Forbes.
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In August 2022, Forbes became the first cabinet secretary to take maternity leave following the birth of her daughter, Naomi.
McAllan said First Minister Humza Yousaf has been “excellent” about her pregnancy.
She became the economy secretary earlier this month after Neil Gray was appointed health secretary following the resignation of Michael Matheson.
Previously, she had been the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition after she was appointed to the job in Yousaf’s first cabinet.
Humza Yousaf said: "I am over the moon for Màiri and Iain. Màiri is absolutely right to say that starting a family should never be a barrier to holding senior positions.
"I hope her example will inspire other women, many of whom may want to have children, to get involved in politics."
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