Scotland’s finance secretary Kate Forbes suffered a fresh blow to her bid to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as Scottish National party leader and first minister after a senior SNP politician said he strongly disagreed with her views on same-sex marriage.
John Swinney, deputy first minister, said it was legitimate for SNP party members who will choose the next leader to make a judgment on Forbes’s stance on gay marriage.
Bookmakers initially made Forbes the favourite to replace Sturgeon, but her campaign suffered a big setback when she said in media interviews she would have voted against a 2014 law that legalised same-sex marriage in Scotland.
Several supporters of Forbes, a deeply religious politician first elected to the Scottish parliament in 2016, have withdrawn their backing because of her comments.
Swinney’s remarks are a fresh blow for Forbes, given his position as a leading member of the Scottish government and one of the most important figures in the pro-independence SNP.
He told the BBC: “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.”
A spokesperson for Forbes hit back at Swinney on Wednesday evening, saying: “The prime minister is a Hindu, the mayor of London is a Muslim, so many will wonder why the deputy first minister believes a woman holding Christian views should be disqualified from holding high office in Scotland.”
Forbes has defended her views as mainstream Christian thought and suggested that citing them as a reason she could not serve as first minister was a sign of intolerance.
She is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, which espouses highly traditional Protestant Christian views and is against gay marriage.
While saying she would have voted against the 2014 legislation to legalise same-sex marriage, Forbes has also stated she would respect the Scottish parliament’s decision.
“Have we become so illiberal that we cannot have these discussions or some people are beyond the pale?” Forbes told the broadcaster STV on Tuesday. “Because if some people are beyond the pale then those are dark and dangerous days for Scotland.”
Swinney, who was SNP leader between 2000 and 2004, said he did not accept that Forbes’s beliefs on gay marriage were simply a matter of faith.
“I don’t hold the same views that Kate has set out in the course of the last couple of days, and it has been unhelpful that the debate has been focused on the question of faith,” he added.
Swinney said “plenty of churches”, including the Church of Scotland, conduct same-sex marriages.
He declined to endorse a candidate to succeed Sturgeon, having already ruled himself out of the SNP leadership contest.
Health secretary Humza Yousaf, who has cast himself as the continuity candidate in the race, told the BBC he supported gay marriage.
He also backed Sturgeon’s contentious legislation to enable trans people to gain quicker official recognition of their gender, which has been blocked by the UK government.
Forbes, who was on maternity leave until recently, has said she would not have voted for the legislation in its current form, which was approved by the Scottish parliament last year.
Joanna Cherry, an SNP MP who is backing Ash Regan, the former community safety minister in the party leadership race, said in a tweet that an “elder statesperson” should intervene to call off the “feeding frenzy” over Forbes.
Additional reporting by Mure Dickie in Edinburgh
