THE KATE MISTAKE
First Minister should make room for best talent, his leadership rival says
Ash Regan has criticised new First Minister Humza Yousaf for failing to put Kate Forbes in his Cabinet.
The leadership candidate, who was also left out of Yousaf ’s top team, said the SNP leader should have included “all the talent possible” on his front bench.
Regan said: “The challenges this Government faces are significant – we are dealing with inflation, the impact of Brexit, our NHS needs to be rebuilt after Covid.
“When you have all these really important things to manage you really want to include all the talent that you can in your government.
“Leaving Kate out I would say wasn’t a very wise move. She is widely recognised as talented and so to put her out on to the back benches, that doesn’t seem to be very sensible when you’ve got all these challenges you need to include all the talent possible.”
Regan, who ran against Yousaf and Forbes, revealed Yousaf did not offer her any role or hold any conversations with her about one.
He offered Forbes the rural affairs portfolio, a big demotion from her previous job as finance secretary – one she turned down.
Deputy First Minister Shona Robison insisted Forbes had rejected the role as she wanted to get out of the spotlight and “spend time with her family”.
But Forbes’s supporters denied that the arrival of her first child last year had anything to do with the decision and said she was not prepared to accept such a significant demotion.
One source close to Forbes told the Sunday Mail that the comment s from Yousaf allies about her decision to leave government were sexist.
Robison said on Wednesday that the meeting between Yousaf and Forbes to discuss the job had been “cordial”.
But in reference to the claim that Forbes had wanted to spend more time with family, a source said: “This sounds very sexist. It’s a poor excuse for keeping out one o f the ir mos t ttalented people.
“Kate was well aawa r e o f t he demandsd of the role of First Minister and until 2pm on Monday, March 27, she was actively seeking that role.
“To be worried about the demotion to rural affairs secretary and the demands on her time feels, as a minimum, distinctly odd.
“I wonder why no one has seen fit to use this line on Humza given he too has a small child.”
In an interview with the
Holyrood Sources podcast, Forbes said she was expecting “an element of awkwardness” when she returns to Holyrood full-time after being on maternity lave.
The MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch said: “I believe that the contest has been and gone, we’re over the finish line and it’s passed.
“I’m very happy to pick up where I left it with friends and colleagues last summer.
“That’s always going to be a twoway street, so it remains to be seen whether the hand of friendship that I offer out is reciprocated and inevitably after a contest it takes a while for the dust to settle. I hope any tension or awkwardness will very quickly disappear.”
But Forbes said she regretted that former business minister Ivan McKee, her early campaign manager in the leadership contest, had also lost his government job.
Asked to respond to the claims of sexism against Forbes, an SNP spokeswoman said: “The SNP has zero tolerance for discrimination of any sort – everyone should be able to participate in all levels of our political democracy.”
It’s a poor excuse for keeping out one of their most talented people