Keith Brown (Scottish politician)

SNP Depute leadership bid, 2014

Following defeat in the Scottish independence referendum, 2014, Scottish National Party leader and First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond announced his resignation as SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland.^[13] In the aftermath of his resignation, a leadership bid was launched, with Deputy First Minister of Scotland and SNP Depute leader Nicola Sturgeon widely tipped to become Salmond's successor.^[14][15]

On 25 September 2014, Brown officially launched his bid to become the Depute leader of the Scottish National Party, with the backing of several SNP MSPs, as well as several Scottish Government ministers.^[16][17] The results of the election were announced at the SNP Autumn Conference on the 14 November, with Brown losing the contest to Stewart Hosie, with 45.5% of the vote in the second round to Hosie's 55.5%.^[18]

Cabinet

On 21 November 2014, he was promoted to Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities in Nicola Sturgeon's first reshuffle.^[19] Brown was re-elected to the Clackmannanshire and Dunblane constituency in 2016. On 18 May he became the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work while still maintaining responsibility for veterans affairs.^[20] In December 2016, Brown led calls for Amazon to pay its employees the living wage after reports surfaced concerning the conditions of workers in the company's Dunfernline depot,^[21] holding talks with Amazon several days later in which he was told Amazon would "consider" paying the living wage.^[22][23] In July 2017, Brown wrote to UK ministers on the need to continue legal protected status for the definition of Scotch whisky post-Brexit amid fears that in a future trade deal the USA “would support a relaxation of the definition of whisky, which would open the market up to a number of products which do not currently meet that standard.”^[24][25][26] Later on in 2017 he visited the US and Canada in a series of speaking engagements to promote economic ties between North American business communities and Scotland.^[27][28]

Depute leader of the Scottish National Party

On 8 June 2018, Keith Brown became the depute leader of the Scottish National Party, having contested and won the Scottish National Party depute leadership election, 2018 with 55% of votes in the second round.^[29] At his acceptance speech at the SNP conference in Aberdeen, Brown told fellow SNP members to prepare for a second Scottish independence referendum.^[30][31][32] Brown also announced that he would chair three national assemblies to debate the SNP's 2018 Growth Commission report on an independent Scotland's economic prospects.^[30][33][34]

Although Brown was elected Depute Leader of the SNP, John Swinney remained as Sturgeon's Deputy First Minister despite Brown being a member of the Scottish Parliament. In the June 2018 reshuffle of the Scottish Government, Brown was sacked as Economy Secretary and replaced by Derek Mackay. He was subsequently given a role as the SNP's Campaign Manager.