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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Brexit: UK and EU formally agree Windsor framework for Northern Ireland – as it happened

Kate Forbes says she would seek talks with Scottish Greens 'early doors' if she becomes first minister

Kate Forbes, the SNP leadership candidate, has indicated that she will try to maintain the power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens if she becomes Scotland’s first minister next week.

In an interview this morning Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, indicated that the agreement might lapse with Forbes as first minister because of her lack of support for the gender recognition reform bill.

Forbes was on maternity leave when MSPs debated the bill, but she has said she would not have voted for it in its current form. Her main rival for the SNP leadership, Humza Yousaf, says he would go to court to fight the UK government’s decision to block the bill. Forbes says she would prefer to have a “grown-up conversation” with Westminster to discuss how the bill might be reformed.

This morning Harvie suggested that, with Forbes leading the SNP, power sharing with the Scottish Greens would have to end. (See 11.34am.)

But when this was put to her, Forbes said:

I want to work with Patrick Harvie and the Green party. I have negotiated probably more than any other cabinet secretary with the Greens in the past, and I want to work with other parties in Holyrood.

I would certainly have a conversation with him very early doors.

Asked how a compromise with the Scottish Greens might be possible given their strong support for the gender recognition bill, she replied:

I would hope that as a member of government, we could both take an approach which is to consider the legal advice, and to make decisions off the back of the legal advice.

Kate Forbes on a visit to the Zakariyya Masjid mosque in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, today.
Kate Forbes on a visit to the Zakariyya Masjid mosque in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, today. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

Updated

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