Scotland’s former First Minister, Humza Yousaf, has taken a swipe at his one-time rival for the leadership, Kate Forbes, branding her election campaign “disastrous”.
Yousaf briefly served as First Minister - his tenure in the role was the second shortest since its inception. Yousaf was gone after a year and 39 days, only just outlasting the reign of Henry McLeish who stood down from the role after a year and 12 days due to scandal involving constituency office expenses.
Prior to his ascension to the role of First Minister, Yousaf was primarily known for a speech that some described as racist after he lamented the fact that most key offices in Scotland - which has a 96 per cent white population - were held by white people.
Upon throwing his hat into the ring for leadership of the SNP and of Scotland itself, Yousaf, a Muslim, was challenged by Forbes, a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Forbes was immediately challenged over her stance on the issues like homosexuality and the importance of marriage.
In his new book, Yousaf described Forbes campaign as “disastrous” and “clumsy”, and claimed she had managed to “insult around half the parents in the country” when she said that having children outside of marriage was wrong.
“The problem for many people was not Kate’s faith but her clumsy articulation of it, alienating minority groups and making them feel, in their own words, as if they didn’t belong in Kate Forbes’ Scotland," he said.
“In the first few days of her campaign, she cast doubt over existing laws - such as same-sex marriage legislation - suggesting she would be open to repealing it.
“She also managed to insult around half the parents in the country by telling them that having children out of wedlock was wrong.”
For her part, Forbes has not only stood by her campaign, but described it as a kind of moral victory, even if she did in fact lose the electoral contest to Yousaf.
Speaking at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship this year, Forbes said she had been pressured to “lie” about her beliefs.
“The end result felt like a victory because during that period I thought: I have not given in when I could have. Therefore, I did lose the contest but I absolutely won the public support … and that feels good," she said.
For his part, Yousaf has continued to identify as a practising Muslim and has spoken openly about the importance of his faith. However, on the question of homosexuality, he has explicitly rejected the traditional Islamic view that homosexual sexual activity is sinful.
