Swinney faces SNP rebellion from LGBT wing over Forbes appointment
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John Swinney is facing a rebellion from the SNP’s LGBT wing over his decision to make Kate Forbes his Deputy First Minister after she said she would have voted against gay marriage.
Out for Independence, the party’s official LGBT group, said it shared “real concerns” about her appointment and would be seeking “urgent clarification” from Mr Swinney and Ms Forbes.
The group said it wanted assurances from the First Minister that controversial plans to ban conversion therapy would not be derailed. The Scottish Government plans to make it a criminal offence to attempt to “change or suppress” a person’s gender identity.
Its statement was issued shortly after the Scottish Greens warned Mr Swinney he risked reviving the “repressive” social attitudes of the 1950s by appointing her.
Patrick Harvie, the Greens’ co-leader, said Mr Swinney had sacked “progressive” ministers from his frontbench team and promoted someone “who has opposed LGBT people’s legal equality” as his second in command.
Speaking at Mr Swinney’s debut First Minister’s Questions after replacing Humza Yousaf, Mr Harvie said Ms Forbes had “expressed judgmental attitudes to abortion”.
He said the new Deputy First Minister, who is a devout Christian, had also “expressed the view that people who have families without being married are doing something wrong.”
Mr Harvie, who was a minister in Humza Yousaf’s administration, asked Mr Swinney: “Is this the Scottish Government’s vision for the future of Scotland – taking us back to the repressive values of the 1950s?”
The Greens later voted against Ms Forbes becoming Deputy First Minister, claiming LGBT people were “afraid” of Ms Forbes’s inclusion. However, her appointment was approved by 63 votes to 57.
Mr Swinney said that he wanted to be “First Minister for everyone in Scotland”, regardless of their sexuality or marital status. Both he and Ms Forbes said later that they “support those values”.
Ms Forbes, a member of the Free Church of Scotland, triggered uproar in last year’s SNP leadership contest with Mr Yousaf when she expressed opposition to gay marriage and children being born out of wedlock.
She made clear she would not seek to roll back any rights but Mr Swinney questioned at the time whether her views made her “an appropriate individual to be SNP leader and first minister”.
The statement by Out for Independence said: “We are aware of the real concerns within the LGBTQ+ community at the appointment of Kate Forbes as DFM [Deputy First Minister], given the views she has previously presented. We share those concerns.
“We will be seeking urgent clarification from the FM and DFM that our progressive LGBTQ+ policies such as a ban on conversion practices will not be stalled or removed from the programme of government.”
It said the group “will be seeking to speak directly to FM John Swinney to address these fears and to make clear that, while we support him in his goal of uniting the party for independence, unity necessitates trust, clarity and equality.”
Mr Yousaf was forced to announce his resignation last week after botching the handling of his decision to end the SNP’s power-sharing deal with the Greens.
Mr Swinney was crowned as his successor as SNP leader and First Minister after Ms Forbes agreed not to stand against him.
She extracted a high price for her cooperation, with Mr Swinney making her Deputy First Minister and Economy Secretary in his minority government.
Mr Swinney has signalled he wants to drag the SNP back to the political centre ground and away from the hard-Left Greens’ agenda, which has centred on environmental and gender issues.
‘Many LGBT people are worried’
Mr Harvie challenged him to come clean on “the direction his Government will take”, before attacking Ms Forbes’s views on gay marriage, abortion and childbirth outside of wedlock.
“I’m not yet sure that the First Minister acknowledges or understands just how worried many LGBT people and others are in Scotland at the moment,” he added.
Mr Swinney told Mr Harvie: “I want to lead a modern, dynamic and diverse Scotland, a place for everybody, where everybody feels at home, at peace, where they have a place and that their place in our society is protected by my leadership of this country.”
Describing his “very deep Christian faith”, he later told MSPs: “Nothing can separate us from the love of God and we are equal in the eyes of God, every one of us.”
Pressed by reporters if Ms Forbes shared his progressive values, Mr Swinney said: “Yes, she does actually.”
Ms Forbes said: “I am here to support the First Minister and together we serve all communities in Scotland as we further and progress the rights of every community in Scotland, and I look forward to doing my part in achieving the Government’s aims in that regard.
“Not just that, but when I joined Government yesterday in a clear role to support the First Minister, I signed up to collective responsibility, so I stand by the Government’s decisions and agenda to improve and progress the rights of all of Scotland’s communities.”
