With only a day to go until voting for the next SNP leader starts, candidates don’t have long left to convince members to back them. So perhaps it’s little wonder that tensions are running high. The favourite for the contest Humza Yousaf has secured the backing of John Swinney, with the Deputy First Minister publicly endorsing Yousaf this weekend as his preferred candidate for SNP leader.
Nicola Sturgeon has said she will not endorse a candidate but as Swinney is her close ally the move has raised eyebrows – particularly given the timing. While Humza Yousaf’s team describe the ‘unstoppable momentum’ building behind their candidate, with Yousaf telling the BBC’s Sunday Show that ‘anybody would bite John Swinney’s hand off for that endorsement’, Kate Forbes’s campaign are less than thrilled.
Releasing their statement in response to Swinney’s ‘intervention’ in the contest Forbes’s backer, Michelle Thomson MSP, said that this latest move shows ‘that senior figures in the party have seen the polls and are absolutely panicking.’
She continued:
Given how close we are to the vote opening, many party members will look upon this 11th hour intervention rather cynically.
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