McConnell becomes new First Minister

Jack McConnell became the third First Minister of Scotland in two years on Thursday.

The former education minister beat challenges from the Scots Tory leader, David McLetchie, John Swinney, of the SNP, and Dennis Canavan, an independent MSP, to win a vote at the Scottish Parliament by 46 votes, thanks to the support of Labour's coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats.

It took less than an hour for each of the four candidates to set out his policies on how the Scottish Executive should serve before MSPs cast their electronic votes, awarding Mr Canavan 3, Mr McConnell 70, Mr McLetchie 19 and Mr Swinney 34.

Mr McConnell, whose political experience has been as a local councillor and then as a member of the Scottish Parliament, said he wanted to "build a better Scotland". The 41-year-old former maths teacher who last week publicly confessed to an adulterous affair seven years ago, promised to lead an Eexecutive that was "open and transparent".

His first official job will be to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace on Monday to receive the official seal of office and then on Tuesday he will choose his Cabinet.