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A former key adviser to Alex Salmond has been appointed as the official spokesman for First Minister Humza Yousaf.

Kevin Pringle will become the Scottish government's head of communications and strategic political adviser later this month.

He served in a similar role from 2007 to 2012 under Mr Salmond.

Mr Pringle then ran the SNP's communications team ahead of the independence referendum in 2014.

He left politics after the referendum and joined the Charlotte Street Partners PR firm that had been set up by former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson.

Mr Pringle revealed his new government role, which will see him replace the recently-departed Stuart Nicolson as the first minister's official spokesman, in his column in The Courier newspaper.

He wrote: "Eight years after I left my last job with the SNP, thinking that was me finally done with working in politics, I'm taking up a new post this month with the Scottish government."

Mr Pringle started working for the SNP in 1989 and was credited with helping to transform the party ahead of its historic victory in the Scottish Parliament election in 2007, which saw Mr Salmond become first minister, and its subsequent electoral success.

He returns to the government amid an ongoing police investigation into the SNP's finances and with opinion polls suggesting the party's support has dropped in the wake of Nicola Sturgeon quitting and controversy over some of its key policies.

Scottish Labour are hopeful of making big gains at the expense of the nationalists in next year's general election.

But Mr Pringle wrote: "Despite all the difficulties and controversies, the SNP still seems to me to retain its hard-earned and relatively recently-acquired status of natural party of government in Scotland.

"I'm not saying this will be the case forever, but I think it holds true for now."