SNP in bid to stop ‘tartan Tory' being future leader

Party insiders reveal long-term succession strategy to ensure controversial ex-minister Kate Forbes blocked from power

- DAVID MADDOX

Senior SNP insiders have told The Independent that there is a succession plan in place to prevent the party from moving to the right under a potential Kate Forbes leadership in the future. Ms Forbes has ruled herself out of making a second bid for the leadership in just over a year, in a move that should ensure former deputy first minister John Swinney is unopposed as a replacement to Humza Yousaf.

But senior party sources have claimed that Mr Swinney, who was previously leader in a disastrous period for the SNP between 2000 and 2004, is “only a stopgap” option until the next Scottish parliament election in 2026.

An SNP MP, who is an ally of Mr Yousaf and his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon, said that the plan is for the party’s current Westminster leader Stephen Flynn to be parachuted in as “the long-term option” for leader at the Holyrood election. The aim appears to be to ensure that Ms Forbes, who narrowly lost to Mr Yousaf last year, does not become leader of the party.

The former finance secretary courted huge controversy with her strong Christian views as a member of the Free Church of Scotland which are seen as contrary to the “progressive” views of the current SNP, in place since Ms Sturgeon was leader.