Campbell to quitfor family’s sake

She made the surprise announcement at the weekend that, for her, life without politics begins at 40, the age she turns next summer. It brings to an end what many regarded as a career in the SNP that still had a long way to go.

She was made the Minister for Children and Young people almost immediately after her election as Clydesdale’s MSP in May, 2011 and, after doing that job, was appointed Minister for Public Health and Sport before taking on what will probably be her final role in the government, Communities and Local Government Minister.

Born in Perthshire, Aileen, along with her husband Fraser and their two young sons, lives in Biggar and she said that she is standing down in order to devote more time to her family.

Her decision, ironically made public on International Womens Day, has refuelled the debate over whether juggling a Holyrood career looking after a 710 square-mile constituency and being a minister is compatible with being a mum.

A political rival, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, said that Holyrood was losing too many talented women due to time pressures of the current political system.

Ms Campbell said that her husband had been carrying out many of the parental duties at home while she carried out her political ones but she felt that the time was right to achieve “a better work-life balance”.

The SNP’s Brexit Minister Mike Russell, his party‘s Westminster candidate in Clydesdale in the 1980s is, also to stand down in 2021.