Swinney’s bravery record will help him in office of First Minister - Susan Dalgety

John Swinney will become SNP leader and first minister

​He was born in the city’s Western General Hospital, went to Forrester High School and then studied at Edinburgh University. Legend has it, it was his anger at the way Scottish athletes were portrayed during the Commonwealth Games that made him join the SNP at the tender age of fifteen.

And his uncle, Tom Hunter, who was a pupil at Tynecastle High School, is one of the city’s handful of recipients of the Victoria Cross, the UK’s highest military award for bravery. Hunter was killed, aged only 21, during a WW2 offensive in Italy in 1945.

The young soldier, temporarily promoted to corporal, drew enemy fire away from his troops by charging enemy machine gunners. His colleagues fled to safety, but Tom Hunter was fatally wounded. Speaking at the 2007 prize giving ceremony at Tynecastle, Swinney described his uncle as “an exceptionally brave man”.

John Swinney is going to need all his own personal courage if he is to succeed in the role of First Minister, not least because of the mess the SNP is in, with its finances in disarray and Nicola Sturgeon’s husband charged with embezzlement.

But Swinney’s biggest challenge will be juggling the government’s finances. Only a few months ago, the government cut nearly £200 million out of the housing budget. Two weeks ago, in a desperate bid to distract attention from the impending vote of no confidence, Humza Yousaf found £80 million to put back into housing, but it is still nowhere near enough to solve Scotland’s housing crisis.

Asked last Thursday what he would do about housing, Swinney blamed the UK government for cutting funding. "We can't magic money out of thin air,” he said. "The answer to that, for me, is for Scotland to become an independent country."

But people in his home city, where the council has had to declare a housing emergency, can’t wait for that far-off day which might never come. Edinburgh needs support for housing now. Is the new First Minister up to the challenge?