Candidates seeking to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the Scottish National party and Scotland’s first minister attacked each other’s notes in a heated televised debate that fueled tensions within the party.
The hostile tone of the debate on STV on Tuesday night showed that the SNP could struggle to restore unity in the party that has governed Scotland since 2007 and, under Sturgeon, is known for its discipline and unity in achieving its goal of independence from the UK.
In the first televised debate of the campaign, Kate Forbes, the finance secretary, launched a scathing attack on the record of health secretary Humza Yousaf, a front-runner who has also won the support of most of the party. Forbes suggested he would not keep him in his current position if he won.
“When you are the minister of transport, the trains are never on time, when you are the minister of justice, the police are very difficult and now as the minister of health, we have the highest waiting times,” Hamza said.
Forbes echoing of the attack line of rival parties against one of Sturgeon’s longest-serving government ministers will be welcomed by opposition leaders, but may risk alienating some SNP supporters.
Sturgeon’s surprise announcement last month that she would vacate the post she has held since 2014 has sparked the first leadership battle in the pro-independence party in two decades.
The contest has focused on the party’s strategy for independence after Sturgeon’s plan for a “de facto referendum” faced opposition in the SNP. As Scotland’s longest-serving first minister, Sturgeon held the party.
Yousaf, who has worked in government since 2012, sought to portray himself as a candidate who would build on Sturgeon’s record and defend the party’s socially and economically progressive direction. Forbes and former SNP community safety minister Ash Regan have positioned themselves as candidates for change.
Regan, who resigned from the government last year and is seen as an outsider in the leadership race, began his speech by saying the SNP had “lost its way”.
In her opening speech, Forbes, who has been finance secretary since early 2020 but has been on maternity leave since last summer, said she would give Scotland a fresh start. “More than they do not manifesto, it is acceptance of mediocrity,” she said.
Yousaf denied Forbes’ attack and claimed that he had overstated his skills and negotiating skills as finance secretary, saying he had allowed the UK government to shortchange Scotland by hundreds of millions of pounds during past budget talks.
He also said he was the only candidate to challenge Westminster’s decision to veto a Scottish law aimed at making it easier for trans people to legally change their gender.
Douglas Ross, the leader of the opposition Scottish Conservatives, hit out at Forbes’ suggestion that he would not keep Yousaf as health secretary if he wins the leadership election, which ends on March 27.
“They fight like Nats in a sack and the only thing they agree on is independence and dividing the country again,” Ross tweeted.
Additional reporting by Mure Dickie in Edinburgh