THE chief of staff to Nicola Sturgeon’s predecessor has criticised the lack of “due diligence” in advance of last week’s botched reshuffle.

Geoff Aberdein said the First Minister’s inner circle would be “kicking themselves” over the on-off appointment of Gillian Martin as a minister.

Ms Sturgeon gave Ms Martin the further and higher education brief on Wednesday, but was forced to cancel her appointment the following day over her past blog writings.

In 2007, Ms Martin, then a college lecturer, had mocked transgender people and written in unflattering terms about “American Jews” and “American blacks”.

Ms Sturgeon had previously been aware of some of the transgender comments, including the notion of a “tranny trove” of EU cash, as the blog was widely reported in 2016.

However more offensive material surfaced after Ms Martin was named a minister, including a remark about “hairy knuckled lipstick-wearing transitional transgender Laydees” in colleges.

One of Ms Martin’s roles would have been to promote widening access to minorities.

Opposition parties said the episode had highlighted Ms Sturgeon’s poor judgment.

On BBC Sunday Politics Scotland, Mr Aberdein, who who was Alex Salmond’s top adviser from 2011 to 2014, was asked whether the reshuffle showed the SNP government was losing its previous sure-footedness.

He said: “It was unfortunate.

“The whole purpose of this reshuffle was to enter the summer recess on a high, with a bit of momentum, and of course the Gillian Martin saga has tarnished that.

“I think the people around Ms Sturgeon will be kind of kicking themselves about the lack of due diligence here. Perhaps not as sure-footed as before.

“But you’ve got to remember these things come and go very quickly, and in a couple of days we’ll forget about this, and the focus will be on the ministerial [team].”

He suggested that if there had been better planning, the SNP could have headed off the media stories that followed the appointment.

Now global head of public affairs at Standard Life Aberdeen, Mr Aberdein said: “Had that due diligence been done, then perhaps they might have been able to proactively, the SNP, deal with that, maybe spike it... as a political mechanism to see where the land lies beforehand, but of course that wasn’t done.

“It came as a surprise, and the result was there for all to see.”

The U-turn on Ms Martin’s appointment means there will be no further and higher education minister until after the Holyrood recess, as MSPs must confirm the post.

However Ms Sturgeon could appoint a minister-designate over the summer, who could learn the brief in readiness for confirmation in September.

Edinburgh University’s Professor Lindsay Paterson, one of Scotland’s foremost education experts, said it would be helpful if a new provisional minister was named.

Liam McCabe, president of the National Union of Students, Scotland, added: “It is vital that the government priorities appointing a new minister as a matter of urgency.”