Nicola Sturgeon welcomes support of Willie Rennie’s son for her bid to become first minister

Willie Rennie’s 12-year-old son’s response to his dad putting himself forward for first minister was “Oh Dad, you’re not, are you?” the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader told the Scottish Parliament.

Rennie stood against Nicola Sturgeon to make the point that all parties in the Scottish Parliament are a minority.

He said he had not stood for the role in 2011 or 2014 because the SNP had a majority then.

“No longer. They have lost that majority,” he said. “In part that is why I’m making this stand today and that’s the point that I’m making by standing for first minister.

“We are all minorities here. No manifesto commanded a majority so we all need partners to win votes. We are all equal in that respect.”

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“I was delighted to hear that I start today with the full support of Willie Rennie’s son,” quipped Nicola Sturgeon in response.

She said Rennie had provided “some of the most colourful imagery of the election campaign”, before revealing that she and Rennie had discussed what to do if the vote ended in a tie, which was to settle matters with “a race down a giant inflatable slide”.

Sturgeon said that if elected she looked forward to working with Willie Rennie and with colleagues across the chamber “as collectively across the next five years we confront the challenges and harness the massive opportunities that our country has”, with closing the attainment gap an issue she hoped to make “not just the mission of government, but of the parliament as a whole”.

The SNP leader also told MSPs she wanted to strengthen scrutiny of the first minister and would like more time to be given to First Minster’s Questions to ensure that backbenchers has the chance to ask questions, as well as suggesting she could be called before committees more often.

“As first minister I would welcome the opportunity – welcome is perhaps not quite the right word – but embrace the opportunity to appear more often in front of the parliament’s committee conveners,” she said.

While the proposals for more scrutiny of the role might seem “relatively minor”, Sturgeon said she hoped they’d serve as “an indication of the tone” she wanted to set for the parliament.

At the same session presiding officer Ken Macintosh announced that he was changing the rules to allow members to use electronic devices for social media in the chamber.

Macintosh said: “My decision is in line with the parliament’s commitment to invest in online access to allow members to vote digitally. It’s part of my ambition to promote a modern, accessible parliament”