Nicola Sturgeon’s departure has left a wide-open field for potential successors. One of the favourites to replace her is finance secretary Kate Forbes, an articulate and ambitious cabinet member, but one whose staunch religious beliefs risk placing her at odds with the SNP’s socially liberal policies and imperilling relations with its governing partner, the Scottish Greens.
Forbes was catapulted on to the political scene. Less than two years after joining the frontbench, she was promoted from public finance minister and told to deliver the Scottish government’s pre-Covid budget with six-and-a-half hours’ notice when her predecessor was sacked in disgrace.
