Kate Forbes ‘seriously’ mulls run to replace Humza Yousaf as SNP leader

Kate Forbes is giving “serious consideration” to running in the contest to replace Humza Yousaf as SNP leader and Scottish first minister amid concerns the frontrunner is “continuity Sturgeon”.

Only minutes after Mr Yousaf announced his resignation, John Swinney was installed as the overwhelming favourite to succeed him, with party grandees and several possible leadership rivals quickly lining up behind him.

Senior party sources confirmed the former deputy first minister will throw his hat into the ring later this week after he said he was giving “very careful consideration” to standing for his second stint as party leader.

The SNP hierarchy was hoping Mr Swinney could be crowned without a contest, as the party aimed to quickly move on from the humiliating debacle of Mr Yousaf’s resignation. Mr Yousaf has said he will remain First Minister until a successor is chosen.

Such hopes were boosted after several ministers who had been mooted as possible candidates said they would be backing him instead, including Neil Gray, the Scottish health secretary, and Jenny Gilruth, the education secretary.

But sources close to Ms Forbes said she was seriously weighing up a second tilt at the leadership after she only narrowly lost out to Mr Yousaf in last year’s contest to succeed Ms Sturgeon.

Although Mr Swinney would be the clear favourite in any head-to-head fight, allies of Ms Forbes argued her standing would give members a choice over whether they wanted more “continuity Sturgeon” after Mr Yousaf.

Mr Swinney was the second-most senior figure in Ms Sturgeon’s government and is closely associated with her agenda, including tax hikes, radical environmental policies and controversial gender policies.

The 60-year-old was also a failure in his first stint as SNP leader, between 2000 and 2004, eventually being forced to resign after overseeing a disastrous European election result.

Allies of Ms Forbes said he was “yesterday’s man”, “an apologist for Nicola Sturgeon” and the architect of the party’s unpopular coalition deal with the Greens. Mr Yousaf’s botched attempt to extricate himself from the agreement forced his resignation.

They also argued that over the past year Ms Forbes had been “vindicated on almost everything she said in the last campaign”.

She argued then that “continuity won’t cut it” and the party needed to break away from the Sturgeon era, which she described as mediocre.

A devout Christian, she also triggered uproar when she expressed opposition to gay marriage and children being born out of wedlock.

Mr Swinney, who backed Mr Yousaf in the contest, questioned at the time whether her views made her “an appropriate individual to be SNP leader and first minister”. He contrasted his own Christian views with those of Ms Forbes, who is a Free Church of Scotland member.

Despite Mr Yousaf having the backing of the entire party establishment, Ms Forbes only lost by a margin of 48 per cent to 52 per cent in the second round of voting.

A senior SNP source said: “John is of the past. He’s yesterday’s man. He was the architect of the Bute House Agreement with the Greens and is an apologist for Nicola Sturgeon. He also accused Kate Forbes of not being a proper Christian, which was absurd and really quite unpleasant.

“I am confident in opinion polls of who would be the best first minister between Swinney and Forbes, Kate will be the runaway favourite, because people want change.

“She will deliver competent government on jobs, the economy, health and education. She will not be sitting up until 3am worrying about gender reform.”

Another Forbes ally said: “Nobody doubts John’s longstanding commitment to the SNP. But maybe the question to ask is to what extent is he the future?

“Kate said last time continuity won’t cut it, and it didn’t. What is John if not continuity? Kate is still very popular with members and has been vindicated on almost everything she said in the last campaign. She is giving it serious consideration.”

‘Focus on people’s priorities’

Fergus Ewing, an SNP grandee and arch-critic of the coalition deal with the Greens, said the party must ditch its woke agenda and “focus on people’s priorities”.

He said: “That’s not gender reform, it’s not hate crime, it’s not conversion therapy, it’s not a misogyny bill. It’s people’s jobs, people’s livelihoods, the economy, health and education.”

The former Scottish minister added: “I think it’s essential Kate runs so there is a clear choice and a democratic decision can be made. I expect her to run and I think she will win.”

He argued the SNP “cannot have a coronation of another continuity candidate”.

Another SNP MSP said: “Bread-and-butter issues, rather than culture wars and identity politics, need to be the priority for whoever takes over from Humza.”

The SNP’s ruling national executive committee will meet later this week to decide the rules for the leadership contest, including the timetable and the number of nominations needed to enter.

Last year’s contest took six weeks and candidates required 100 nominations from at least 20 party branches. Mr Swinney and Ms Forbes would easily meet this threshold.

‘Fresh thinking and talent’

Mr Swinney stepped down as deputy first minister last year in tandem with Ms Sturgeon’s departure and ruled himself out of the leadership contest to succeed her.

He said that his time at the top was over and the party needed “fresh thinking and fresh talent to come to the surface”. However, he remained hugely popular with the party membership.

Senior SNP figures are understood to have spent last weekend lobbying Mr Swinney to put his name forward and it is understood he will. Speaking in London only 90 minutes after Mr Yousaf resigned, he said was “giving very careful consideration” to standing.

He said: “I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed by the requests that have been made of me to do that with many, many messages from many colleagues across the party.

“So I’m giving that issue very active consideration and it is likely I will have more to say about that in the days to come.”

Mr Swinney added: “I’ve got lots of things to think about, there’s the whole question of my family, and I have to make sure I do the right thing by my family, they are precious to me.

“I have to do the right thing by my party and my country so there is lots to be thought about.”

He said he would ensure the SNP was “a moderate Left-of-centre political party in the mainstream tradition of Scottish public opinion”.

Rejected election call

With Scotland set to have its third first minister in barely a year, he rejected Labour’s call for a Holyrood election, saying the Edinburgh parliament should sit for its full five-year fixed term. This is scheduled to end in May 2026.

Ms Gilruth tweeted: “John Swinney is the best choice to be Scotland’s first minister and @‌theSNP leader. I will be strongly supporting him if, as I hope, he chooses to run.”

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s former Westminster leader, said Mr Swinney “has what it takes” to lead the SNP and “not just in the short term”.

Pete Wishart, the SNP’s longest-serving MP, tweeted: “John Swinney would be an excellent unifier for our country and our party. We should all get behind him if he chooses to run.”

Stephen Flynn, the current Westminster leader, argued Mr Swinney was the only person who could unite the party and the country.

But Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the people of Scotland should decide who leads them rather than a “backroom stitch-up by the SNP”.

He told the Daily Record that Mr Swinney “represents the past”, adding: “Obviously it’s up to the SNP to decide who their leader is, but it is ‘continuity Sturgeon’. It is doubling down on the last 17 years of failure.”