The SNP leadership race’s contenders to replace Nicola Sturgeon so far: Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf

Three candidates have announced their intention to run for leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) after Nicola Sturgeon’s surprise resignation.

Candidates have until Friday to secure 100 nominations from at least 20 local branches of the party, with the new leader due to be announced on 27 March.

A number of senior SNP figures who had initially been touted as potential successors have said they will not be standing.

The party’s former Westminster leader Angus Robertson, deputy first minister John Swinney and deputy leader Keith Brown have all ruled themselves out of the running.

Here are the candidates who have confirmed they will stand so far:

Kate Forbes

Kate Forbes was first elected to Holyrood in 2016 for the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency.

But the 32-year-old only became a well-known face on the SNP’s frontbench in February 2020 after a last minute promotion.

Just hours before the then-finance minister Derek Mackay was due to deliver the Scottish government’s budget, he resigned from his post after being accused of sending hundreds of messages to a 16-year-old boy.

Aged just 29, Ms Forbes jumped in to take on the role and responsibility, and has remained in charge of the economy since – through COVID, soaring energy prices and a cost of living crisis.

She was born in Dingwall in the Highlands in 1990, but split her childhood studies between a Gaelic school in Scotland and institutions in India after her father relocated to the country for work.

Ms Forbes returned to Glasgow aged 15 before heading to the University of Cambridge. She graduated with a BA in History, then continued her education in Edinburgh, getting an MSc in diaspora and migration history.

After graduating in 2013, she dipped her toe into Scottish politics by getting a job as a researcher for SNP MSP Dave Thompson, but worked for Oxfam and trained as an accountant before returning to Holyrood to take her former boss’ seat as part of an all-women shortlist to replace him.

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1:40 Kate Forbes shares some of her views on marriage, children, transgender issues and wild behaviour

She was seen as a rising star in the party, impressing her peers by delivering an entire speech in Gaelic and fighting to protect the language, and it was only two years before she was elevated to become deputy finance secretary.

But she also spoke out against the leadership’s plans on gender reform as one of 15 SNP MSPs to sign an open letter in 2019 calling for it to delay any changes. Come 2022, she did not participate in the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill vote.

After announcing her bid to become the new first minister and leader of the SNP, she said: “I can’t sit back and watch our nation thwarted on the road to self-determination.

“Our small, independent neighbours enjoy wealthier, fairer, and greener societies – and so should we.”

But her views on social issues also came to the fore.

She revealed she would have voted against gay marriage in Scotland in 2014 if she had been an MSP – though promised not to roll back existing rights in the country.

And speaking to Sky News, she said her faith as a member of the Free Church of Scotland means having children outside of marriage is “wrong” and something she personally would “seek to avoid”.

Ms Forbes was married in 2021, becoming a stepmother to three children, and is currently on maternity leave after having her first child in August.

Ash Regan

Ash Regan began her Holyrood journey in 2016 after becoming the MSP for Edinburgh Eastern.

Her highest position on the frontbench so far was as the minister for community safety, taking up the role in 2018.

But she gained the nickname “the SNP rebel” after her dramatic resignation from the post four years later over her opposition to the gender reform bill.

The 48-year-old was born in Glasgow, with her father running a kilt shop on the famed Sauchiehall Street.

Her family moved south of the border and she spent her teens attending school in both Cumbria and then Devon, before heading to Keele University in 1992 to gain a BA in International Relations.

Her studying continued at the London School of Public Relations and at the Open University, before she began her career in PR and marketing for a number of firms.

Image: Ash Regan protested against the gender reform bill outside Holyrood

Ms Regan returned to Scotland for work just before the referendum campaign began, and joined the Women for Independence organisation to make her voice heard.

After losing the vote, she then turned her attention to the SNP, joining the party and being selected as a candidate only a year later – then winning the seat, beating the then leader of Scottish Labour Kezia Dugdale in the process.

She focused on committee work during her first two years, starting on matters of the economy before moving to health and sport, and then heading to the frontbench.

Like Ms Forbes, she signed the open letter calling for delays to gender reform policies.

But she hit the headlines three years later when she resigned from government over the bill just hours before a vote was due to take place, saying her “conscience” would not allow her to back it.

Announcing her leadership bid, she said she was the right person to “bring back unity, draw a line under certain things and move past them”.

In a post on Twitter on Sunday, Ms Regan also outlined a plan to call for an independence convention to be held to “create a new vision of an independent Scotland”.

She said a pro-independence majority at any election in Scotland should be enough to trigger negotiations to leave the UK.

Ms Regan, formerly known as Ms Denham, is divorced and the mother of twin boys.

How will Nicola Sturgeon’s successor be chosen?

Nicola Sturgeon has announced her intention to resign once a successor as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) has been elected.

But how does the SNP elect its next leader?

Those wishing to put themselves forward as candidates for leader of the SNP must have at least 100 nominations from party members from at least 20 of the party’s local branches.

If there is more than one candidate, there will be an election in which all party members are eligible to vote. The vote is run on a one-person-one-vote postal voting system.

Unlike at Westminster, where a prime minister is appointed by the King under the royal prerogative, the first minister of Scotland is nominated for appointment by Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs).

This takes place when a first minister resigns, like Ms Sturgeon has, or following an election.

Theoretically, any MSP could become first minister. In practice, they will be the leader of the party with the most MSPs – currently the SNP.

Under section 46 of the Scotland Act 1998, once a first minister has tendered their resignation to the King, the Scottish Parliament has a period of 28 days in which to nominate one of its members for appointment as their successor.

A candidate to become the new first minister must be an MSP.

MSPs are asked to cast their vote for their preferred candidate. A separate vote is held for each one.

The results are then verified and announced by the presiding officer. The successful candidate is elected by a simple majority.

The presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament then recommends to the King that he appoint the winning candidate as first minister of Scotland.

With the agreement of the Scottish Parliament, the new first minister will then appoint ministers from among other MSPs “with the approval of His Majesty”.

Humza Yousaf

Humza Yousaf was elected as an MSP in 2011 and, at 26, he was the youngest MSP to enter Holyrood at the time.

Now 37, he has been the secretary for health and social care since 2021 at a time of huge pressure on the NHS.

Born in Glasgow to a Pakistani father and Kenyan mother who moved to Scotland in the 1960s, he was educated privately at Hutchesons’ Grammar School.

His interest in politics had already taken hold in his youth, and he went to the University of Glasgow to study it, coming out with an MA in 2007.

During his time at university, he was president of the Muslim Students Association, as well as involved in the Students’ Representative Council.

It was straight to Holyrood for Mr Yousaf, taking a job as a parliamentary assistant to the SNP’s Bashir Ahmad – Scotland’s first Muslim MSP.

After Mr Ahmad’s death two years later, he carried on the role and worked as an assistant for Nicola Sturgeon and the then-first minister Alex Salmond, solidifying his place in the party.

Image: Humza Yousaf brought his daughter Amal when he launched his leadership bid

By 2011, it was his turn to run for a seat and, after winning, it took little time for him to join the junior ministerial ranks.

But it was a significant moment, as when he was named minister for external affairs and international development in 2012, he became the first non-white and Muslim minister in Holyrood.

After the leadership was handed over to Ms Sturgeon in 2014, he remained in the junior ranks, but come 2016 he took on the transport brief – an awkward time to be fined for driving without the correct insurance.

Mr Yousaf gained his big promotion in 2018 to become cabinet secretary for justice, but perhaps his biggest challenge was taking on health and social care a year into the pandemic in 2021.

Announcing his decision to stand, Mr Yousaf said: “You’ve got to put yourself forward if you think you’re the best person for the job. And I do. This is the top job in the country, and it needs somebody who has experience.”

He has been married twice and has two children.