Kate Forbes: Why entitled and complacent SNP may not see her like again
The next SNP leadership battle is less likely to be a contest between Stephen Flynn’s ego and Mairi McAllan’s mediocrity
Few of the SNP’s current generation had to prove themselves like Kate Forbes, who was asked to deliver the Budget with just a few hours’ notice after Finance Secretary Derek Mackay resigned in disgrace. Despite the daunting task ahead, Forbes rose to the occasion.
There were more tests to come – within weeks she was Finance Secretary in a pandemic. As Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson at the time, I clashed with her many times in the Chamber.
But outside of legislative debate, she was warm, funny and no-nonsense, with a mind of her own. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Forbes made the decision to step away and put her family first.
She has always used her platform to be open about the challenges of motherhood, from the lack of support for postnatal depression to the limited creche hours at Holyrood. But this isn’t about the creche.
Politics always a sacrifice
No doubt Forbes' job was made harder by the geographic realities of representing a constituency five hours’ drive from Edinburgh and being a government minister. I was a government minister and a constituency MSP in the first parliament and my daughter was aged seven – that meant a two-hour drive to go home every night.
Remote voting and working have made that easier but it still is difficult when you have young children. It’s a reckoning other politicians have come to, including Gail Ross, a former SNP MSP in the Highlands.
Forbes is smart and self-disciplined enough to know that politics was always going to be a sacrifice. But those in power should ask themselves why making that sacrifice for a job in the SNP government is so impossible for a capable and ambitious woman these days.
Was it the years of misogynistic online abuse that female politicians suffer from disproportionately, across the political spectrum? Was it the undignified scramble by Forbes’ SNP colleagues to disown her, following her decision to be upfront with party members about her faith?
Or was it the fact that Forbes – who could have launched a leadership bid after being vindicated by Humza Yousaf’s government, but accepted a role as deputy leader to John Swinney – seems to have been treated more as a liability than an asset?
READ MORE: Kate Forbes: Will the SNP Deputy First Minister's resignation pave the way for a Lib Dem victory?
A rancid government
As an opposition politician, it’s not for me to delve into the inner battles for the soul of the SNP. But one thing I do know is that Forbes’ departure only adds to the whiff of rancidness about this current SNP government.
The next future SNP leadership battle is less likely to be a serious debate about ideas and more a question of whether Stephen Flynn’s ego will outweigh Mairi McAllan’s mediocrity. Neither of them seem willing to challenge the status quo, despite the long queues at A&E departments, the failing ferries and a lazy tax-and-spend policy of chipping away at working people’s bank balances without boosting growth.
I wish Forbes well with the next stage in her life and her future endeavours. But the entitled and complacent party she leaves behind is unlikely to attract such another young rising star.
And that’s the real reckoning that’s needed.
Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health
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