Scotland leadership candidate Kate Forbes calls for ‘reset’ of SNP referendum strategy

Kate Forbes, who on Monday announced that she would run to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the Scottish National party, has called for a “reset” of the party’s independence strategy, signalling that she would break with the current first minister’s plan for a “de facto” referendum.

Asked by the BBC if she favoured treating the next UK general election as a referendum on breaking the union with England, Scotland’s finance and economy secretary said the answer was not simple.

“We need a reset on our strategy for independence, and I think that needs to come through listening to people and building bridges,” she said.

Sturgeon’s authority in the pro-independence SNP was undermined partly by internal opposition to her plan to use the next UK general election as a “de facto” referendum, after the UK Supreme Court ruled late last year that she did not have the legal authority to run a plebiscite without London’s consent. Many of her own MPs feared that turning an election into a one-issue campaign would cost them their seats.

Forbes, who has been on maternity leave since last summer, is the bookmakers’ favourite to replace Sturgeon, who announced her resignation on Wednesday last week.

Her chances were boosted on Monday when Angus Robertson, cabinet secretary for the constitution and another SNP heavyweight, ruled himself out of the contest, although Forbes will be challenged by Humza Yousaf, the health secretary, and Ash Regan, former community safety minister.

Robertson, a former leader of the SNP group at Westminster, had been seen as one of the leading potential candidates to succeed Sturgeon.

In a statement, Forbes said she had the “vision, experience and competence to inspire voters across Scotland” and that she was a “unifier”.

“I can’t sit back and watch our nation thwarted on the road to self-determination,” she added in a campaign video.

Launching his bid in Glasgow on Monday, Yousaf heaped praise on Sturgeon and cast himself as a continuity candidate, saying that her “commitment to social justice is a legacy I hope to continue”.

He also reiterated his support for abortion rights and controversial legislation intended to make it easier for people to gain official recognition for changes of gender. A top priority for Sturgeon, it was last month vetoed by Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister.

“I have lived my entire life in Scotland as a minority, often having to fight for my rights. I want there to be no doubt in anyone’s mind that I will fight to protect all of our rights,” said Yousaf, who, if elected, would become Scotland’s first leader from a minority ethnic background.

Some within the SNP have questioned whether Forbes’s membership of the Free Church of Scotland, a Christian church that holds traditional views on social issues, could imperil her ability to lead a party that under Sturgeon took an increasingly liberal stance.

In her BBC interview, Forbes said she could not have supported the gender reform legislation as it stood.

In 2019, Forbes signed an open letter alongside Regan, who last year resigned from the government to vote against the gender recognition reform bill, and other SNP colleagues who urged caution on making it easier for people to change gender.

“Changing the definition of male and female” was “a matter of profound significance”, the letter said.

Meanwhile, at a prayer breakfast in 2018, Forbes said the treatment of the “unborn” was a “measure of true progress”.

In an Ipsos poll carried out the day after Sturgeon announced that she would quit, 31 per cent of respondents said Forbes would do a good job as first minister, compared with 18 per cent who said she would be a bad leader. One-third of voters said they did not know.

Meanwhile, 20 per cent of respondents said Yousaf would do a good job, behind Robertson on 24 per cent.

SNP members will vote to elect their new leader between March 13 and March 27.