Journalist Iain Macwhirter will today be carried in triumph by his supporters as he takes up his post as rector of Edinburgh University.

Macwhirter, who won the race for the position last month, is to be taken on a victory lap in a Sedan chair after the ceremony to install him as rector.

Macwhirter, a political columnist for the Sunday Herald, beat Labour MSP George Foulkes to win the three-year post on 12 February, taking 69 per cent of the vote.

Thousands of students took part in the ballot to elect him the
university’s 50th rector. It is 150 years since William Gladstone first took up the post at the institution.