The battle to lead the Scottish National party became bitter and personal after the two leading candidates attacked each other\u2019s suitability to succeed\u00a0Nicola Sturgeon\u00a0in the first televised debate of the leadership campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kate Forbes clashed with Humza Yousaf over his track record in government, claiming that trains were never on time when he was transport secretary; the police were at breaking point when he was justice secretary; and now, as health secretary, the NHS had the longest ever waiting lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat makes you think you can do a better job as first minister?\u201d Forbes asked Yousaf, during a cross-examination section of the live STV debate. When he insisted he had ensured\u00a0Scotland\u00a0had the fastest Covid vaccine rollout in the UK, she said it was a \u201ctired ambition\u201d being slightly better than the rest of the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forbes, who has been Sturgeon\u2019s finance secretary since 2020, opened the STV debate by directly criticising Sturgeon\u2019s legacy and by implication Yousaf\u2019s positioning as Sturgeon\u2019s favoured successor. \u201cMore of the same is not a manifesto, it is an acceptance of mediocrity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a series of personal and blunt attacks unprecedented in the SNP\u2019s recent history, Yousaf said neither Forbes nor Ash Regan, the third candidate and outsider in the contest, had the strength to fight for independence as neither would stand up to Westminster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They would not go to court to fight the UK government\u2019s unprecedented decision to block Holyrood legislation greatly simplifying Scotland\u2019s gender recognition rules, Yousaf said. \u201cI\u2019m the only candidate who will stand up to Westminster\u2019s power grab.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regan,\u00a0who quit as community safety minister\u00a0to campaign against the gender recognition bill, said it would be pointless if the supreme court rejected his challenge. \u201cLosing that court case isn\u2019t going to prove that point,\u201d she retorted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his cross-examination of Forbes, Yousaf said her decision not to oppose the UK government\u2019s block meant that, if she won this election contest, her \u201cvery first act [would be] to cave in to the UK government. How can anybody trust you to stand up for the Scottish people?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forbes insisted she would fight harder than anyone for Scotland, adding later that she was the only candidate who had directly negotiated with Rishi Sunak, during his time as chancellor, when she had won extra money for Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regan, who has sought to appeal to hardcore pro-independence activists, said the longer-term plans of both Yousaf and Forbes to build a substantial yes vote before securing a referendum were \u201cwishy washy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She insisted her widely disparaged plans to use election victories as the vehicle for securing independence \u2013 a strategy already rejected by UK party leaders \u2013 were the gold standard route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yousaf accused her of fantasy thinking: \u201cIf there was a shortcut [to independence], we would not be having this debate tonight,\u201d he said. \u201cThe most formidable politician on these islands, Nicola Sturgeon, would have found it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regan and Forbes were also accused by Yousaf of risking the unity of the independence movement by threatening to break up the SNP alliance with the Scottish Green party. The Greens have warned they will quit the government if the next first minister attacks gender reforms, the climate strategy and other social rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yousaf said Forbes had lost support from key MSPs and provoked threats from pro-independence LGBTQ+ activists to quit the yes movement if she was elected. \u201cForget persuading no voters, you can\u2019t even keep yes voters onside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yousaf added that the alliance at Holyrood was \u201cabsolutely vital\u201d to the independence movement. \u201cIf we are going to unite the yes movement, [if] we are going to grow our support, the first thing you cannot do is simply reject the second largest pro-independence party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forbes was pressed several times by the debate host, Colin Mackay, on whether she would prioritise that coalition. \u201cI would put economic prosperity front and centre and if they were willing to work with me, then I would happily work with them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The battle to lead the Scottish National party became bitter and personal after the two leading candidates attacked each other\u2019s suitability to succeed\u00a0Nicola Sturgeon\u00a0in the first televised debate of the leadership campaign. Kate Forbes clashed with Humza Yousaf over his track record in government, claiming that trains were never on time when he was transport […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11261,6728,9306,11291,11394,11941,10655,10387,7960,1425,10507,5222,6763,11399,911,12354,10196,5718,5918,2264,12634,12234,9674,8601,10419,3040,9675,3874,9974,2717,10634,10832,5612,12287,3570,4435,421,7400,11495,5266,5151,9037,10198,9673,3240,5150,6988,8302,1825,5755,12605,10412,11957,6662,6267,3954,10415,594],"class_list":["post-30044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-accused","tag-alliance","tag-appeal","tag-ash","tag-attacks","tag-bill","tag-break-up","tag-campaign","tag-case","tag-chancellor","tag-court","tag-covid","tag-covid-vaccine","tag-debate","tag-election","tag-finance","tag-first-minister","tag-forbes","tag-gold","tag-government","tag-health","tag-host","tag-humza-yousaf","tag-independence","tag-justice","tag-kate","tag-kate-forbes","tag-lead","tag-leadership","tag-lgbtq","tag-lost","tag-manifesto","tag-money","tag-movement","tag-nhs","tag-nicola-sturgeon","tag-police","tag-referendum","tag-reforms","tag-rishi-sunak","tag-scotland","tag-scottish","tag-scottish-national-party","tag-scottish-national-party-snp","tag-snp","tag-sturgeon","tag-successor","tag-sunak","tag-supreme-court","tag-trains","tag-uk","tag-uk-government","tag-unity","tag-vaccine","tag-westminster","tag-will","tag-work","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}