Kate Forbes would have voted against gay marriage

Kate Forbes risked blowing up her SNP leadership campaign on the day it was launched after saying that she would have voted against same-sex marriage had she been a parliamentarian.

Allies of the finance secretary, who was seen as a frontrunner to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland’s first minister, said they feared Forbes had scuppered her chances despite her promising to protect gay rights.

Forbes, 32, who was elected to the Scottish parliament in 2016, told The Scotsman that she would have voted against the bill to allow same-sex marriage, which was passed in 2014.

“I think for me, Angela Merkel [the former German chancellor] is the example I would follow, I would have voted, as a matter of conscience, along the lines of