A YES activist has quit the SNP after almost half a century following Humza Yousaf’s “sidelining” of his preferred leadership candidate, Kate Forbes.
Kenny Anderson, an Aberdeenshire businessman who has been involved with the Business for Scotland Yes group, announced he has resigned his membership of the SNP after 49 years.
“After 49 years I am now a former member of @theSNP I have not joined any other party,” he wrote on Twitter.
After 49 years I am now a former member of @theSNP I have not joined any other party.
— Kenny Anderson (@Kennyaberdeen) March 28, 2023
Responding to questions from other social media users, Anderson said he was “VERY” angry and that Yousaf should have “treated Kate Forbes better”.
On Tuesday it was reported that the new First Minister had offered Forbes – who narrowly lost out by 48% to 52% in the SNP leadership race – the role of Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs.
The move would have been widely regarded as a demotion for the former finance secretary, and she turned it down.
Ivan McKee, the former business minister who was a key Forbes backer in the leadership contest, is understood to have also left government in similar circumstances.
On Twitter, Anderson said “governance of the party needs a complete overhaul” and added:“To gain independence we need all of our best people not just over promoted, inadequate former councillors and political graduates who have done 6 months at SNP HQ.”
He further told the Press and Journal: “I was in tune with a lot of what Kate Forbes was for in terms of particularly the economy and business. But I don’t share her views on gay marriage.
“There were flaws but I voted for Kate and was keen on her. Whoever won I wanted to see them overhaul the governance of the party and unite the party.
“That would involve appointing someone who got 48% of the vote to at least the same position she held before she took maternity leave.
“When Humza Yousaf offered her what I consider a sideways move that would have sidelined her. I thought that signalled poor judgment and I felt it wouldn’t unify the party.”
Anderson ran the Aberdeen-based firm Anderson Construction until it closed in 2018 after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He is now on the board of urological cancer charity, Ucan Aberdeen.
He also served as a local chairman for Business for Scotland during the first independence referendum.
