Kate Forbes to leave Scottish government after SNP leadership defeat

Kate Forbes is to leave the Scottish government after losing her bid to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland’s First Minister. 

Ms Forbes was offered a position in new party leader Humza Yousaf’s Cabinet, but turned down the role. 

Mr Yousaf narrowly won the race to succeed Ms Sturgeon as SNP leader, scraping home despite enjoying the overwhelming backing of the party establishment.

Insiders close to their negotiations said Mr Yousaf had offered Ms Forbes a demotion from finance secretary to rural affairs secretary.

Sources close to Ms Forbes confirmed that she had turned down the rural affairs post and would now return to the back benches.

They insisted that she had an “amicable” conversation with the new First Minister and denied claims that she had told Mr Yousaf “where to stick” his offer of a demotion.

“Kate has a young family and wants to return to the backbenches,” they said. “She had a genuinely very amicable conversation with Humza but let him know that she did not want to be considered for any other cabinet roles.”

Alex Neil, the former SNP cabinet minister who backed Ms Forbes, suggested that Mr Yousaf had sought to humiliate his former rival by offering her a lesser post.

“An insult and not a real effort to unite,” he tweeted in response to Ms Forbes’ rejection of the rural affairs post. “A poor start.”

Her rejection came shortly after Mr Yousaf was formally elected First Minister and said he wanted Ms Forbes in his government.

Controversially, Mr Yousaf also announced Shona Robison, the minister who was in charge of Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial self-ID gender reforms, will become his Deputy First Minister.

His failure to convince Ms Forbes to join his Cabinet further weakened his position after he only defeated her by a margin of 51.2 per cent to 47.9 per cent in the leadership contest following the elimination of the other candidate, Ash Regan.

Only a third of SNP members eligible to cast a ballot gave their first preference vote to Mr Yousaf despite the party’s establishment, led by John Swinney, exhorting them to back him. He was the sole candidate to back the gender reforms.

In an extraordinarily bitter campaign, the trio trashed each other’s performance in government and Ms Forbes described Ms Sturgeon’s record as mediocre.

Following his victory speech on Tuesday, Mr Yousaf said he wanted to hold early meetings with Ms Forbes and Ms Regan’s about their roles in an attempt to move forward as “one team.”

But he immediately undermined his chances of them joining his government by stating that his “starting position” would be to challenge the UK Government veto of the gender reforms in the courts.

The legislation, which would allow all Scots aged over 16 to change their legal sex by signing a declaration, was vigorously opposed by Ms Forbes and Ms Regan. The UK Government blocked it over concerns it damaged protections for women.