Fergus Ewing warns attacks on Kate Forbes will backfire

Ms Forbes, the former finance secretary, returned from maternity leave last year, to run against Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan in the contest to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and First Minister.

But her campaign hit troubles early on when she set out her moral views as an evangelical Christian against equal marriage. However, she said she would not act to change the existing law if she became First Minister. She said she would not have voted for gay marriage in 2014 and claimed having children outside marriage was “wrong according to my faith”.

READ MORE: Will Kate Forbes run for SNP leader? Why would she want to?

Backing Mr Yousaf's campaign in February last year, Mr Swinney suggested it would not be appropriate for someone who held such social and moral views as Ms Forbes to become First Minister.

"If Kate wants to set out those views, with which I profoundly disagree despite being a man of deep faith, then the party membership will make their judgment ... whether they think they are appropriate for someone to hold if you are a leader of the SNP and first minister," he told the BBC.

Asked about Mr Swinney's intervention last year Mr Ewing told The Herald: "The personal attacks on her over her Christian beliefs have been quite repugnant and really quite disgraceful. I hope he retracts those remarks."

Former deputy first minister John Swinney.    Photo PA.

He added: "Maybe Scotland isn't as Christian as it was but the Church of Scotland is still the national Church. We have a very large number of people who subscribe to the Catholic faith, and we are more of an ecumenical country than we were as we have strong Muslim and Sikh populations, as well as many people with other views including the Free Kirk, Baptists and United Reform.

"They all subscribe largely to a set of values who even people who are not religious support, such as helping your neighbour, being a good Samaritan, turning the other cheek and helping those in need.

"These are all Christian values. Kate is the most honest person I have met in politics in over 30 years.

"She has a huge capacity for hard work, an undoubted intellect and an ability to express complex arguments in a simple, appealing and accessible fashion."

He continued: "John is not so much of the unity candidate but the continuity candidate as he is promising more of the same.

"Although the Bute House Agreement is scrapped in practice the Greens influence is continuing as they have almost been given by John Swinney and his supporters a kind of veto over anyone they don't like to be First Minister and that person happens to be Kate Forbes."

READ MORE: Kate Forbes receives 'groundswell of support' for SNP leadership bid

Asked if he hoped the contest this time would be more respectful, he said: "I hope so but I'm not sure my hopes will be realised. 

"Already they are pushing this line about 'isn't it dreadful that we would have a Christian First Minister.'

"It's utterly preposterous and repugnant and it's insulting to hundreds of thousands of people of Christian faith around Scotland.

"But it's also a complete fallacy. The character qualities that Kate has of honesty, of trustworthiness are exactly what you need to run a minority government successfully."

Pressed if the views seen as anti-Christian could put off people from supporting the SNP come the general election even among people who were not Church goers but supported religious tolerance, he said: "I think that is already happening. I know it has put off people with strong religious views because they have written to me." 

SNP MSP Fergus Ewing.  Photo PA.

Noting the heated debate over transgender identity and the view that someone can become a woman through a process of self-declaration, he said: "A lot of people feel they are inhibited from speaking out and they resent that and feel the government is expressing a set of views which is alien to a substantial majority of the population."

Mr Swinney and Ms Forbes have emerged as the early frontrunners for the SNP leadership as the Scottish Government faces a vote of no confidence today.

A snap poll carried out by Ipsos gave Ms Forbes a six-point lead over Swinney when voters were given a list of potential SNP contenders, with 26% of the general public backing her.

However, SNP voters were more likely to prefer Mr Swinney, with 30% saying he would make the best First Minister. This compared with 21% who wanted Ms Forbes and 14% who selected Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, who has publicly backed Swinney.

Ms Forbes faced a similar uphill battle last year by largely being ahead of Yousaf with the general public but behind among SNP supporters.

Both Mr Swinney and Ms Forbes, now senior backbench MSPs, have yet to formally announce their intention to succeed Mr Yousaf following the announcement on Monday he would step down.

Last night the Scottish Labour MP Michael Shanks called for people not to launch personal attacks on Ms Forbes because of her Christian faith.

"Let’s not do this again. I disagree fundamentally with Kate Forbes on a lot of social issues but her faith is personal to her and if she chooses to pray that’s her right, just as it was totally fine for Humza Yousaf to pray in Bute House," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

READ MORE: SNP leadership: Who are Kate Forbes' allies and backers?

Mr Swinney – who served as Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy first minister for almost nine years – has gained the support of senior party members, including Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, Health Secretary Neil Gray and Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth.

In the hours after Mr Yousaf announced he would quit, Mr Swinney quickly emerged as a safe pair of hands for the embattled party – facing its second leadership contest in 13 months.

Speaking to journalists in Holyrood on Tuesday, he said: “I’m giving it all a great deal of thought to make sure that I come to the right decision for my family, my party and my country.”

The long-time MSP declined to stand in the leadership race last year, saying it was time for a new generation of SNP members to come to the fore.

Asked what had changed, he said: “Events change, don’t they? Nothing ever remains the same.

“What’s changed is that my party finds itself in a very different and more difficult situation than it found itself in 12 months ago.

“I would not be doing a service to the many, many, many people who have contacted me, asking me to stand, and if I don’t think about this properly, it wouldn’t be my style to ignore the representations made to me – I’m someone who listens and addresses the points that are put to me and that’s exactly what I’m doing just now.”

Ms Forbes, in her first public statement on a potential tilt at the leadership, said there was a “groundswell of support” in her favour.

“It’s still early days,” she said.

“We’ll obviously be considering things over the next few hours and so on – nobody’s declared yet, so I think we do still have a bit of time.”

Asked if she was tempted to run, she said: “I think for me it’s clear I have a groundswell of support amongst the party.

“That was clear from the last contest and clearly we need to weigh up what is in the best interests of the party, the country and my family.

“It’s what I’ve said quite consistently over the last year that if I were to run, those would be the conditions.”

Ms Forbes has also received the backing of several senior SNP members, including those regularly at odds with the party’s leadership such as Joanna Cherry and Mr Ewing.

Nominations opened at 11.59pm on Monday, with potential candidates required to garner the support of 100 party members from 20 separate branches to make it through to the ballot – if one is required.

Meanwhile, a motion of no confidence in the Scottish Government is due to be debated on Wednesday.

Tabled by Scottish Labour after the First Minister’s decision to scrap the Bute House Agreement, destabilising his Government, Mr Yousaf is expected to speak in the defence of his record.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said his party was pressing ahead with the motion of no confidence because he does not believe the SNP can provide “stable, competent government”.

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Mr Sarwar told BBC Radio Scotland: “It’s of course for other political parties to decide how they vote in that motion, but I think the principle still applies in our motion and that’s why we’re pushing ahead.”

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, however, decided to retract a Tory motion of no confidence in the First Minister. declaring “job done”.

On Tuesday, the First Minister chaired his first cabinet meeting since the announcement of his departure.

A spokesman for the First Minister said the Cabinet stood and applauded his entrance into the Cabinet Room in Bute House.

Addressing his ministers, the First Minister said: “It has been the greatest honour of my life and I’m grateful for having had the opportunity.”

Mr Swinney declined to comment on Mr Ewing's remarks while the SNP referred The Herald inquiry to Mr Swinney.