Who is Kate Forbes: the latest MSP to announce they’re running for First Minister

With the shock resignation of Nicola Sturgeon last week from her role as First Minister of Scotland, the dust has barely settled as political commentators start to discuss who would take over the role in her absence. One name that already has been bandied about, so much so that she is considered a frontrunner for the position, is Kate Forbes.

The former Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy and member of the SNP has earned plaudits through her work in helping the Scottish economy recover from the pandemic and in March 2022 Forbes launched a report outlining Scotland's National Strategy for Economic Transformation, which is her plan to improve Scotland's economy over the following 10 years.

She has now officially entered into the running to become the next First Minister of Scotland, standing against Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and former minister Ash Regan, who both have made their intentions known over the weekend. During her announcement, Forbes promised a "competent leadership to deliver independence" and it was time to "unleash the full talent of the SNP, the wider Yes movement and the country at large" as she pledged to stand on a ticket of competent leadership to deliver independence.

"The nation and the Yes movement are at a major crossroads," Forbes said: "The choices we make in the next few weeks will have a profound impact on our future and our children's future. I cannot sit back and watch our nation thwarted on the road to self-determination. Our small, independent neighbours enjoy wealthier, fairer, and greener societies - and so can we."

But much in a similar vein to former New Zealand PM Jacinda Adern, Forbes personal life is now subject to public scrutiny, despite the 33-year-old reading almost like an open book regarding some of her beliefs - popular or not.

Much akin to Adern, Forbes became pregnant with her husband, Alasdair MacLennan, while holding her position in the Scottish Parliament. Much like Adern also, instead of taking maternity leave Forbes continued to soldier on in the role, becoming the first Scottish Cabinet secretary to take maternity leave while remaining in her post. The couple welcomed their firstborn, Naomi, in August 2022.

Forbes has not been shy about her religious conviction either; a member of the Free Church of Scotland, their beliefs sometimes run opposite to the progressive nature of politics in Scotland. Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast in 2021, Forbes said about her faith she was "as guilty as anybody of tiptoeing around" it because of a "fear and a sense that the public will think we only speak for our own rather than speak for everybody".

It was at a Free Church service in July 2021 that Forbes and MacLennan tied the knot, but it’s also been the Free Church that has led to some unpopular opinions regarding abortion and transgender rights. The church follows a strict interpretation of the bible that opposes gay marriage and believes there are few circumstances in which abortion is justified.

It only allowed the singing of hymns and playing of musical instruments in its church services in 2010, and traditionally opposes doing most activities on a Sunday.

It has influenced some of Forbes political activities, including abstaining in the most recent legislation regarding the Gender Reform Act (the only SNP MSP member to do so), and in 2018 making an anti-abortion statement at a prayer breakfast, claiming the treatment of the "unborn" is a "measure of true progress" one day after a Westminster debate on abortion.

But throughout the political controversy, where state and religion have to be balanced by the rising star of Scottish politics, faith will always be a more prominent aspect of her life than politics. In the same BBC interview, she remarked “I believe that he [Jesus] died for me, he saved me and that my calling is to serve and to love him and to serve and love my neighbours with all my heart and soul and mind and strength.”

"So that for me is essential to my being. Politics will pass - I am a person before I was a politician and that person will continue to believe that I am made in the image of God."