Scotland leadership ballot begins
YOUSAF SEEN AS PREFFERED CANDIDATE FOR PARTY VOTERS
VOTING to elect a new Scottish leader after Nicola Sturgeon’s surprise resignation opened on Monday (13), with all three candidates pledging to reinvigorate her spluttering push to win independence for the country.
Sturgeon’s independence drive ran into trouble after the UK government blocked her plans to hold a fresh referendum on the issue.
This is the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) first full leadership battle since 2004, with contenders including Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan.
Sturgeon, who quit last month as both SNP leader and Scottish first minister, had also became embroiled in controversy over her handling of a transgender rights row.
Rising star and current finance minister Forbes, 32, sparked controversy after she said she would have voted against same-sex marriage had she been a member of the Scottish parliament when the reform was passed in 2014.
Forbes is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, Scotland’s second largest denomination, which opposes same-sex marriage and abortion.
Health minister Yousaf, 37, has won the backing of Sturgeon allies. He is the first non-white and Muslim cabinet member of the Scottish government.
The third candidate is Regan, a 38-year-old former minister, who has pledged to restore unity to the party.
In a debate last Thursday (9), Yousaf questioned whether Forbes’ personal convictions put other people’s rights at risk. People want a first minister who does “not believe they are morally inferior” and who would “protect and advance” their rights, he said. “I’m the only candidate that has unequivocally said they will protect everybody,” he added.
Forbes has defended her views as a matter of personal conscience, but they have left her out of tune with the SNP’s centre-left base. Despite this, an Ipsos poll of all voters last week put her ahead on 32 per cent, with Yousaf on 24 per cent and Regan on eight per cent.
However, Yousaf is widely seen as the preferred candidate for SNP voters.
In last week’s debate, Forbes questioned whether he had the mettle to take on the UK government over its refusal to grant permission for another independence referendum. She touted herself as the only candidate to have gone head-tohead with British prime minister Rishi Sunak “and won”.
Regan, meanwhile, claimed she alone had a credible plan for independence and panned her rivals’ approach as “wishy washy”.
“This is the time for brave hearts, not faint hearts,” she said.
The new leader will be announced
on March 27.