KATE Forbes has backed John Swinney as SNP leader after his former cabinet colleague said he must quit after a damning election result.
The Deputy First Minister said Swinney could improve the SNP’s reputation for “competence and integrity” after Alex Neil suggested he needed to make way for fresh leadership.
The SNP returned just nine MPs at the General Election, down from 48 in 2019.
Forbes told BBC Radio 4: “Competence and integrity must be the hallmark of our leadership and it’s certainly the two words that have been on John Swinney’s lips prior to the election, throughout the election and now in the aftermath of the election.”
She said the election result had been “difficult” for the party and called for “transparent and open” government.
“Those are two flags, as it were, that need to be planted on everything that we do and I believe John Swinney is the leader to do that and I am very pleased to be supporting him in his mission to achieve that," she said.
Forbes – who was brought into Swinney’s government after she decided not to challenge him for party leadership - warned against "navel gazing", insisting the party should listen to the electorate.
Neil (below) has argued the SNP should be led by Forbes and the party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.
Former SNP MPs Angus MacNeil and Joanna Cherry have also been critical of previous SNP leadership, with the latter suggesting Nicola Sturgeon should apologise for the election result.
MacNeil blamed the “personality cult” of Sturgeon for the party’s downfall at Westminster and said Swinney needed to go.
Former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said Swinney needed to be given more time to show he can lead the party and Scottish Government.
On the back of the result, Flynn said it was clear the party's "internal difficulties" in recent years had been a "distraction".
He said it "meant people began to feel that we were detached from their daily lives and lived experience".
Unsuccessful SNP Falkirk candidate Toni Giugliano - who lost what had been the party's safest seat in 2019 to Labour - said voters wanted to give them a "bit of a kick" and tell them "you need to get your house in order".
However, he said Swinney was the "last person" who should be blamed.
He said that the public were not "in the same space" as the SNP when it came to independence, and warned the party had been having "a conversation amongst ourselves" when discussing its strategy in the past year.
Giugliano claimed the police investigation into the SNP’s finances had been a “huge issue”, while adding that his own campaign was damaged by a scandal involving local MSP Michael Matheson who racked up a £11,000 data bill on his parliamentary iPad while he was health secretary.
