Veteran politician John Swinney is on course to become the head of the Scottish National party and the next first minister of Scotland after his main challenger Kate Forbes said she would not enter the race to lead the party.
If elected SNP leader to replace Humza Yousaf, who resigned this week, Swinney would have to work with other parties to lead the Scottish government, since his party has 63 seats and the opposition has 65.
But Forbes’ decision to stand aside means that the SNP will probably avoid a repeat of last year’s bruising leadership contest, which she narrowly lost to Yousaf.
The 60-year-old Swinney, who announced his intention to stand on Thursday, is so far the only formal candidate for leader.
As the SNP seeks to draw a line under recent setbacks — including a slide in the polls and a challenge by Labour — he told a press conference in Edinburgh he wanted “to unite the Scottish National party and unite Scotland for independence”.
The party grandee previously led the SNP between 2000 and 2004, as well as serving as deputy first minister until last year.
Swinney rejected suggestions he would serve only a temporary term and vowed to lead the SNP through both the UK general election expected this year and Scottish elections due in 2026.
“I am no caretaker, I am no interim leader,” he told reporters, adding that his party faced “difficult times” and that he was standing in order to “sort out” internal divisions.
He added that, if elected, he would offer the 34-year-old Forbes a “significant” job in government, describing her as “intelligent, creative and thoughtful”.
Forbes, a former Scottish finance secretary, wrote on X on Thursday that after “frank and constructive” talks with Swinney and listening “very carefully” to his campaign launch, she would give him her “support and endorsement”.
The leadership contest was triggered by Yousaf’s resignation on Monday after losing the support of the Scottish Greens, previously the SNP’s coalition partner.
Yousaf will remain head of the devolved government until a replacement is chosen.
The SNP faces a big challenge from Labour, which hopes to take more than 20 seats from the nationalist party at the general election. Labour has just two Scottish MPs in Westminster, far from its heyday under Sir Tony Blair when it had 56.
Swinney said on Thursday he stood at the “moderate centre left” of Scottish politics, with a focus on social justice and economic growth to support public services.
Forbes was appointed Scotland’s first female finance secretary in 2020 by then-first minister Nicola Sturgeon, in whose administration Swinney served as deputy. But her stance on same-sex marriage damaged her campaign last year.
