KATE Forbes has been confirmed as Scotland’s Deputy First Minister after a vote in the Scottish parliament which could have seen MSPs block the appointment.
A motion proposed by John Swinney was put to MSPs at Holyrood on Thursday afternoon, and needed a simple majority to pass.
However, the Scottish Greens had said they would oppose Forbes’s appointment due to her socially conservative views.
In the 2023 SNP leadership contest, Forbes said she would have voted against gay marriage and suggested it was wrong to have children out of wedlock.
READ MORE: John Swinney under fire at FMQs as Greens lash out at Kate Forbes
Speaking at Holyrood on Thursday, Green MSP Ross Greer said he and his party could not back Forbes for Deputy First Minister.
Greer said: “Faith is not the issue here. The issue is that I'm being asked to vote for someone who thinks there's something wrong with me, not because of any views I hold, but simply because of who I am.
“I will not do that, and the Scottish Greens will not do that.”
If all MSPs from the four other opposition parties – the LibDems, Labour, Tories, and Alba – had voted against Forbes, then the motion asking parliament to agree to her appointment as a minister would have fallen.
However, Alba’s Ash Regan backed Forbes, and the LibDems abstained. Furthermore, not all of Holyrood's MSPs were present, meaning the SNP group would have been big enough to wave through Forbes’s appointment unopposed.
Swinney’s motion looking for MSPs to back Forbes as a minister passed by 63 votes to 57, with three abstentions.
LibDem MSP and former group leader Willie Rennie said his party would not block Forbes’s appointment as a show of goodwill and their intention to take a “new approach” to Scottish politics.
He added: “We may have a difference of views on equalities, but Kate Forbes does deserve a chance to govern, putting those views to one side.”
In his response, Swinney said he wanted to see the Scottish Parliament “work more collaboratively”, and addressed each of the main opposition parties in turn.
Addressing Greer specifically, Swinney (above) said: “We want to make sure that those values of diversity that have been at the heart of the journey of this parliament over so many years are protected and enhanced as we move forward as a country together.
“When I say to the country, as I did on Tuesday, that I offer myself as the First Minister for everybody in Scotland, I cannot convey adequately or strongly enough that I mean absolutely everybody.
“I want every single person in our society to feel they are at home and at peace in our society.
“And I come to these conclusions actually from some of the motivations that Mr Greer has talked about as well. I come to them from a very deep Christian faith.
“I believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God. That is the foundation of who I am. Nothing can separate us from the love of God and we are equal in the eyes of God, every one of us.
READ MORE: Kelly Given: The SNP’s shift right runs contrary to all I believe in
“I hope those comments – which are more forthright comments about faith than I have ever uttered in my 45 years in politics – will perhaps illustrate to Parliament the magnitude of the seriousness with which I take the issues that Mr Greer has talked about as well.”
Forbes did not speak during the debate, but had earlier addressed criticism from the Greens while speaking to journalists.
After FMQs, she 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.”
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