KATE Forbes is Scots’ preferred candidate to take over as first minister – with nearly a third of voters praising her performance in government.
A Panelbase poll commissioned by The Sunday Times has revealed that 23% of voters would like to see the Finance Secretary replace Nicola Sturgeon at the head of government, with Humza Yousaf on 15%.
Ash Regan was the first choice of only 7%, the poll found.
And when asked to rate the performance of each in government, Forbes came out on top, with 31% saying she had done a good job against 17% saying she had performed poorly – this worked out as an overall positive rating of 14%.
Former community safety minister Regan came second with an overall rating of 3% while Yousaf, who currently serves as Health Secretary had an overall approval rating of minus 16%, according to the poll.
It will be a welcome boost to Forbes’s campaign, which got off to a poor start when she said on the day she announced her candidacy that she would have opposed gay marriage had she been an MSP at the time it was passed.
Her outspoken conservative views on social issues appear not to have harmed her campaign so far, with another recent poll showing she was in the lead among SNP voters – though more remained undecided than backed Forbes.
