Humza Yousaf has hired Alex Salmond’s former media adviser and strategist to inject more experience into his team.

Kevin Pringle will leave Charlotte Street Partners where he has been a senior partner since 2015.

He was a special adviser to both Mr Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon and also served as the SNP’s director of communication. After moving to the Edinburgh-based media agency he also wrote a weekly column for The Sunday Times and has latterly written for The Courier.

In his final column for the Dundee paper he described the SNP has “the natural party of government in Scotland.”

He added: “I’m not saying this will be the case forever, but I think it holds true for now. Indeed, a big part of the attraction of going back to work in government is that this administration [now SNP plus Greens] still has a future, not just a past.”

It has been reported that a number of people were approached for the role of First Minister’s spokesman but turned the job down.

Mr Pringle’s departure from Charlotte Street Partners comes a few weeks after fellow partner and former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson left the agency to join high street bank Santander.