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Kate Forbes isn’t ruling out another leadership bid

(Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

It’s the end of another rocky week for Scotland’s First Minister. Humza Yousaf has been dealing with national outrage over the hate crime bill and remains under pressure to sack one of his closest allies in the party over an £11,000 iPad scandal. So Kate Forbes’s latest intervention is the last thing he needs. On Thursday night, Yousaf’s onetime leadership rival admitted that the SNP lacks a ‘big vision’ and suggested that she hadn’t ruled out another leadership bid. Watch your back, Humza…

At a Holyrood Sources podcast recording on Thursday night, Forbes told her audience that ‘people need to be inspired by leadership’, continuing: 

As much as I back the party and the current first minister, we can only win elections if you have a big vision we can get behind. 

When quizzed on whether she would consider the top job, Forbes replied: ‘I still think I’ve got a vision and I still think I’ve got an appetite for change. If the opportunity arises…and it is the right thing for the country, the party and my family, I wouldn’t rule it out.’ How very curious…

Forbes added that it was important for MSPs to ‘be enthused and inspired by what that big vision is’ because if not, ‘there are alternative jobs’. But the former finance secretary didn’t sound as though she was planning to duck out of politics any time soon, telling podcast hosts that she would remain in post as long as she could ‘deal with the root symptoms and not just tread water’. Mr S would point out that describing the way in which the Nats have been running Scotland as ‘treading water’ is really rather generous…

Informal conversations about replacing Yousaf are already taking place, Steerpike understands — although taking on the leadership before the 2026 Holyrood election could turn out to be a poisoned chalice. Forbes, who came a close second to Yousaf in last year’s SNP leadership contest, still has supporters who fancy her chances if another leadership contest were to arise. But the backbench MSP has today taken to social media to quash the reports of her Humza snub, writing: ‘If you read my remarks you’ll note they weren’t a criticism of the First Minister.’ If you so say so, Kate…

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Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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