SNP in disarray as Kate Forbes opens the door to new leadership challenge
KATE Forbes has claimed it is time for a ‘Highlander at the helm’ as she opens the door for another crack at the SNP leadership.
In a move set to send shockwaves through Nationalist ranks, the former finance secretary, who lost out on the top job to Humza Yousaf in March, has said she would ‘never say never’ to running again.
It marks a shift in the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP’s position, after she said she may have ‘dodged a bullet’ by losing the contest to Mr Yousaf at an Edinburgh Festival Fringe event this month.
She told a newspaper: ‘It’s been pretty tough. Fair play to Humza Yousaf. I think it would have been difficult for anybody.
‘It’s difficult to set out your vision when you’re trying to manage these extraordinarily challenging situations, which you’re not in control of. But that’s not to say that I wouldn’t have given it my best shot had I won.’
Asked in an interview with the Irish Times if she would go for the leadership again if it was available, she hesitated and then said: ‘Never say never.’
In a separate conversation with the West Highland Free Press, she added that she was ‘incredibly reluctant’ to stand again but admitted: ‘The only reason I would not say never is: who can control the way circumstances unfold?
‘The membership made their decision and I am not sore about it. I respect democracy. The only thing that exercises me is that I think it is high time we had a Highlander at the helm.’
Her comments come despite Ms Forbes telling broadcaster Iain Dale and former home secretary Jacqui Smith this month that she was ‘most delighted’ not to be SNP leader after watching the party rapidly descend into chaos.
She said at the time: ‘It has been enormously difficult, and I think [I have] not just dodged a bullet, but perhaps something even more explosive than that.’
Although at the Fringe event Ms Forbes refused to completely rule out another run at the top job, she did suggest it was ‘highly, highly unlikely’, adding: ‘At the moment I absolutely stand by what I have said, which is that I have no desire to rerun.’
Since Mr Yousaf became First Minister he has had to grapple with an embarrassing police probe into the SNP’s finances.
He has also faced plummeting membership numbers and increasing disquiet about the SNP’s Bute House Agreement with the Greens.
However, he has insisted that the coalition will survive until the next Holyrood election.
Asked during a podcast recording at the Fringe whether he feels like he is leading the SNP at the most difficult time of its history, Mr Yousaf said: ‘Certainly one of the most difficult periods. I struggle to think of a more difficult time.
‘We don’t know what the future holds either. It could be more challenging before it gets easier. There is 16 years of government and there is some fatigue... people need to have a reason to vote for us.’
Ms Forbes’ suggestion that she could have a tilt at the leadership for a second time is likely to cause concern in Mr Yousaf’s camp.
The two have been distant since the bitter leadership race sparked by Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation announcement in February.
Ms Forbes, who positioned herself apart from the ‘Old Guard’ of the SNP, and claimed that ‘continuity won’t cut it’, lambasted Mr Yousaf’s record in ministerial positions.
Since losing to Mr Yousaf, who gained 52 per cent of the membership’s vote compared to her 48 per cent, she has continued to be a vocal critic of plans by the SNP/Green coalition, something which the First Minister champions.
In particular, she has railed against now defunct proposals to inflict a fishing ban on a tenth of Scottish waters, called for the Scottish Government to ditch the shambolic Deposit Return Scheme and is in
‘It’s time we had a Highlander at the helm’
favour of dualling the A9, to the dismay of the anti-motorist Greens.
She has also called for the SNP to ‘check in’ with their membership to see if they still want the powersharing deal after months of such policy difficulties.
Speaking to the regional press in Scotland, she said: ‘My query about the Bute House Agreement is on where ideology hits delivery. When it comes to Highly Protected Marine Areas, as well as other aspects, it has been found wanting. That is not a controversial view. It has been accepted by the Government as well as others.
‘It stands to reason that, as our economy evolves, surely any government would be flexible in its legislative approach, so why not the Bute House Agreement?’
Meanwhile in the Irish Times, she admitted she was tempted by the prospect of being the SNP leader who delivers Scottish independence.
She said: ‘Independence is not far [away] if we find a better way of communicating with and respecting No voters.
‘There is a lot more support for independence than we are told, if we would only realise that we have common cause with all people who want to see Scotland flourish.’
She later added: ‘But just to be the one who tries is not enough.
‘It has to be the right time, for you and for the country.’
Don’t laugh, but this so-called ‘Highland coup’ could chase off hapless Humza
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IT has started as all plots do – slowly and secretly. But hushed conversations in quiet corners bemoaning the SNP’s Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Greens have, over a period of weeks, become more targeted and all the more fervent. Now, born from those covert discussions, is a plan that some insiders are calling a comically named ‘Highland coup’ – one which will see a formidable, albeit informal, alliance of rural Nationalist MSPs try to edge out the Greens once and for all. Although several senior MSPs have already publicly called to renegotiate Holyrood’s power sharing agreement, today a group of SNP dissenters have issued a stark warning to Humza Yousaf under the cloak of anonymity; boot out our Bute House bedfellows – known to rebels as The Lunatics – or face a leadership challenge. According to one source, the Nationalist politicians, who were elected on a tide of support from the Highlands and Islands, fear that the SNP will face ruinous losses at the ballot box owing to Green party policies that threaten to disproportionately impact rural Scotland.
Among them are Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie’s calls for mandatory heat pumps to be installed, something SNP insiders claim could only have been dreamt up on ‘another planet’.
The rebels also cite the failed expansion of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) and the disastrous bottle recycling scheme as examples of hare-brained Green plans that are damaging the SNP’s reputation.
Worse still, they are concerned that the SNP’s ties with the Greens threaten the future of the separatist party. Last night, delivering a devastating ultimatum to Mr Yousaf, one insider said: ‘This is now a test of Humza’s leadership. ‘If he takes action over the deal with the Greens, he will show he has leadership potential. Or else people will ask, is he just an empty shirt, an empty vessel without a backbone? The question is, will he respond to pressure by getting rid of the Greens? Will he jump before he is pushed?’
ANOTHER source said: ‘The problem is, Humza is unlikely to deliver. The reasonable voice in me says give him a chance but I would like Kate Forbes to lead us. I don’t see the SNP going anywhere without Kate Forbes in charge.’
These are sentiments echoed by another SNP rebel who, when asked if former finance secretary Ms Forbes would be a better leader than Mr Yousaf, responded: ‘There might be a lot of hostility at first, but the silent majority of normal human beings understand the language that she speaks.’
Ms Forbes was one of a number of Nationalist MSPs who last week publicly stated that the SNP should ask its members whether they still want the conditions of the Bute House Agreement. She was joined by MP Joanna Cherry. But perhaps most outspoken on the Scottish Greens has been former rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing.
The deal allows the Greens to be party to a joint policy platform covering briefs including independence, housing, transport and tackling climate change.
When first voted on following the 2021 election, the agreement received the support of around 95 per cent of SNP members.
But Mr Ewing, who previously branded the Scottish Greens ‘wine bar revolutionaries’ and having staunchly defended his constituents against encroaching anti-rural policies, last Sunday called for another membership vote on the issue.
He said that now the Scottish parliament is halfway through its session, ‘we have all seen just how damaging the deal has been for us and the country’. He added: ‘Now is exactly the right time to take stock and let our members have their say.’
SNP deputy leader Keith Brown recently responded, saying Mr Ewing’s characterisation of the Greens as ‘hard-left extremists’ was ‘absurd’.
The SNP also hit back, claiming there was no need to vote on the deal again as party members backed Mr Yousaf during the leadership contest when he ‘stood on a platform endorsing the Scottish Government’s cooperation agreement’.
But that position was not accepted by all his MSPs.
ONE said last night: ‘The response from top command on this issue has been abysmal. If we don’t get another vote, we’re living in a totalitarian world.’ Another senior Nationalist MSP said: ‘My sense is that amongst the membership and on the doors there is disquiet. The litmus test here is the extent to how much our membership are allowed to express what they want.’
They added: ‘Humza said that another vote has been ruled out until the elections in 2026, which makes somewhat of a mockery of his transparency pledge. He is almost committing himself to assured failure.
‘What he doesn’t seem to understand is that in the Highlands issues like HPMAs are so significant, they are totemic to people there. Being in bed with the Greens is not sustainable.’
One suggestion made by Mr Brown to appease the increasingly restless backbench ranks was that the partnership could be discussed as a motion at the SNP’s forthcoming conference. The deadline for resolutions to be submitted is tomorrow.
But a source sympathetic to the SNP dissenters said: ‘My fear is, if it went to a vote they would still win it. The true SNP voters left after Kate Forbes lost the leadership race.
‘Humza and Ian Blackford say we’re stuck until 2026, which is not even a play at democracy. They know that a vote on it destabilises the current leadership, as he has supported the Bute House Agreement so vociferously.
‘We are asked all the time in the Highlands and Islands if the SNP is a national party any more, because we have a very urbancentric group of people who spend more time pontificating on rural issues than the grouse farmers themselves.
‘With some Greens policies, you think, what planet are you living on? Urban-based people are making the decisions.’
Although the group of MSPs has not convened to discuss a particular strategy to challenge Mr Yousaf’s leadership, Scottish parliamentary rules would allow them to lodge a vote of no confidence. If the motion gets support from 25 MSPs, it will be scheduled for a debate.
But one insider suggested that Mr Yousaf could allay rural MSPs’ anxieties by simply reshuffling Mr Harvie and Ms Slater – the two Scottish Green ministers – into less influential briefs.
The insider said: ‘Punt them out to ministerial Siberia, that would at least be something.’
With some Greens policies, you think, what planet are you on?