The Scottish politician Kate Forbes, who drew both criticism and admiration for her committed stance as a Christian, has decided to leave politics.
The 35-year-old, described by the New Statesman as “by some margin the outstanding SNP talent of her generation” and “a politician of rare conviction and capability”, has said she is leaving Holyrood to spend more time with her family, particularly her 3-year-old daughter Naomi.
Forbes, a committed Christian, has spoken about the importance of motherhood. She told The Times that when visiting an Indian orphanage, “there was a moment … when it just suddenly dawned on me what a great privilege it is to be a mother but also to have a parent. It’s not an inconvenience to be squeezed into the rest of my life but actually is quite a high calling.”
She leaves the job of deputy first minister and “the prospect of succeeding John Swinney in the top post within the next few years”, assesses the New Statesman.
It goes on to note how Forbes is “fiercely driven by service and faith”, adding that “her authenticity, her refusal to hear the cock crow, has cost her at times. But it also elevated her among her peers.”
It adds that "Holyrood is meant to be a family-friendly parliament, but there will always be a limit to just how family-friendly the political life can be. Not just an MSP, but a Cabinet minister holding demanding posts and, latterly, the cross-government role of deputy FM. It’s not a life that can be lived half-in, half-out. In the end, something had to give, and she has made her choice."
The New Statesman concludes that her departure is a loss “to the government, to the SNP, and to Scottish public life”, adding that “Forbes was the ballast in the Swinney administration, the senior guarantor that the Sturgeon era of increasingly radical leftism was at an end. Her very presence underwrote Swinney’s promise that his administration would be mainstream and moderate.”
The Catholic Herald previously reported on the avalanche of media contempt that nearly buried Forbes and her political career. In 2023, Scotland’s Catholic bishops hit out at “insidious” attempts to bar the politician from party leadership because of her Christian beliefs.
The bishops were also troubled “by the increasing prevalence of political parties removing the right of conscience from their parliamentarians on votes involving contentious moral issues”, they said in a statement.
They made their remarks amid the furore that followed the decision by Forbes to run as a candidate to replace Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister of the Scottish National Party.
The New Statesman notes that Forbes hasn’t ruled out returning to Holyrood at some point in the future, and that "she is young enough to raise her family and then start a political career again".
But for the time being, as a result of her decision, "the progressive left and its online warriors won’t have Kate Forbes to kick around any more. What’s that phrase? Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone."
Photo: Kate Forbes, Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic at the Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE) at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, 16 June 2025. (Photo by Robert Perry/Getty Images.)
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