Kate Forbes: My husband and father were hardest to persuade about standing down from Holyrood

The Deputy First Minister said she struggled with a "sense of letting people down" when deciding against running at the Holyrood election in May.

Ms Forbes, once tipped as a future leader of the SNP, announced her decision publicly last August.

Speaking to Holyrood magazine , she said she made the decision about 10 days before that while in India with her family, who she said were the hardest to convince.

She said: "My dad and my husband are the two who have believed in me the most in this role, and they were also the hardest to persuade that I was going to stand down.

"Ali (her husband) felt like I was too good at my job, that I had particular skills and abilities, and that I had a contribution to make in a world that is increasingly disillusioned with politics.

"So that authenticity and that integrity was of greatest value, and he saw it in me, and he saw it matched with the ability to do a job."

The Skye , Lochaber and Badenoch MSP said her husband and father "finally came round" to her plans the weekend before her announcement.

She said: "The bit I struggled most with is a sense of letting people down, like internally, privately and also externally, because a lot of people have believed in me and wanted me to go on, and I don't want to be seen as somebody who, when it got tough, took a step back, but I know I am making the right decision at the moment for me and for my family."

Ms Forbes was first elected in 2016 and she became Scotland's first female finance secretary in 2020.

She was narrowly defeated in the 2023 SNP leadership contest by Humza Yousaf and at that point she left the government, before being invited back by current First Minister John Swinney .

During her leadership campaign, she was questioned about her religious beliefs. She confirmed at the time that she is anti-abortion, that having children outside marriage conflicts with her Christian faith, and that she would not have voted for equal marriage at Holyrood if she had been an MSP at the time.

Asked by Holyrood magazine whether the backlash caused her to doubt her faith, she said: "Absolutely not, never. If anything, the abuse made me feel that sense of self-confidence in who I am, not egotistical and not arrogant and not that I have something over other people, but that I have just as much of a right to be a citizen and to be a representative of citizens in Scotland as the next person.

"I would say that throughout my life I have been conscious of God and of the power that comes through faith in God.

"I guess to the onlooker, they see the leadership contest as a particularly challenging time, but for me it was just one of many experiences where I have been so grateful to believe in something that is bigger than myself."

She said her time in politics had made her "harder" and a "more cynical person". She said "cynicism is ugly" and she hopes her step back from politics will let her regain "a sense of warmth and empathy".

Speaking about the debate on trans and women's rights, she said the issue is not "as toxic" as it used to be, with the Scottish public having a "fairly settled view on it".

Talking about the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman, she added: "I think that we need to accept the Supreme Court ruling and I think we need to demonstrate to the public that we are implementing the Supreme Court ruling."