Like the new pupil entering class half way through the year, MSPs tried to make Richard Leonard feel welcome.
His new sparring partners at FMQs wished him well as head boy for Labour in Holyrood. Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, told him that leadership is “a privilege and can also be a joy”.
To that, Mr Leonard, whose short time at the helm has been dominated by his predecessor’s jungle antics, raised his eyebrows and cracked a nervous smile.
The First Minister extended her welcome, safe in the knowledge that Labour – who are on their third leader in Scotland in as many years – are the gift that keeps on giving for the weekly Holyrood showpiece.
It was not long before she teased the party’s leadership for being ignored by Kezia Dugdale, their rogue ex-leader who jetted off to Australia to appear in I’m A Celebrity without permission from her employers.
James Kelly, Labour’s business manager, saw his offensive against SNP austerity dismissed by Ms Sturgeon, who said Labour councillors were not using their powers to offset Tory cuts.
She quipped: “It seems as though Labour councils listen to James Kelly just as closely as Kezia Dugdale did when he told her that she was not allowed to go to the jungle.”
Mr Leonard was spared a ribbing on the jungle front from Ms Sturgeon, who looked uneasy about how to handle the Jeremy Corbyn ally when he put her feet to the fire on emergency services cuts.
The SNP leader was accustomed to dealing with Ms Dugdale, whose Blairite association hampered her ability to seriously erode the Nationalists’ left-wing support. Not so easy with Mr Leonard, who is a former trade union organiser.
He represents the Scottish incarnation of Jeremy Corbyn, whose hard socialist agenda has been widely credited for prising left-leaning SNP voters to Labour in the general election.
Just minutes before the Central Scotland MSP entered the FMQ theatre, he had been outside the parliament rousing comrades at the Fire Brigades Union protest.
Apart from taking his jacket off, it was hard to tell the difference between the union stalwart on the street and the Holyrood statesman inside the chamber.
The new kid on the block is feared by an SNP Government wary of the Corbyn threat. If only the Scottish Labour leader had a grip on his party.
