in the House of Commons. The seat returned to the Conservative and Unionist party at the 1992 general election, when it was won by George Kynoch. He later stood for the Aberdeen South constituency in the 1997 election for Aberdeen South, but was defeated by the Scottish Labour candidate. Scottish Parliament Minister and Deputy Minister roles Nicol Stephen was elected as MSP for Aberdeen South in the first elections to the Scottish Parliament. He later helped negotiate the Partnership Agreement for the coalition government with the Labour Party. He later served in the Scottish Executive as Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (1999 to 2000), then as Deputy Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs (2000 to 2001), and as Deputy Minister for Education and Young People (2001 to 2003). Following the 2003 election, he was appointed Minister for Transport. During his time in this post, he was responsible for approving the controversial M74 extension. Deputy First Minister Following the resignation of Jim Wallace in May 2005 as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Nicol Stephen announced his intention to stand for the leadership. He defeated rival candidate, Mike Rumbles, who advocated ending the coalition agreement with the Scottish Labour Party, winning 76.6%, becoming party leader on 23 June 2005. Four days later on 27 June 2005, he was appointed Deputy First Minister of Scotland. Following his leadership victory, a mini-reshuffle of the Scottish Cabinet, saw him take on the role of Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. Opposition Following the 2007 general election, the SNP emerged as the largest party by one seat but short of an overall majority, they held discussions with the Scottish Green Party and also intimated that it would be open to discussions with the Liberal Democrats. However, since the Liberal Democrats had indicated that they would not enter discussions with parties which continued to favour a referendum on independence, no formal talks were held. The SNP became a minority administration and officially entered government on 17 May 2007; Nicol Stephen ceased to be Deputy First Minister and began led his party to the opposition benches. Despite being out of government, his party worked with the SNP Government on certain issues where they broadly agreed, including replacing the Council Tax with a local income tax to fund a proportion of local government revenue. He developed a reputation among some journalists as an effective and