2023 Scottish National Party leadership election

 2023 Scottish National Party leadership election (election)

Date	13 March 2023 - 27 March 2023
Description	Who will succeed Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party?

The 2023 Scottish National Party leadership election is due to take place to choose the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) to succeed Nicola Sturgeon. Sturgeon announced her resignation on 15 February 2023, effective upon the selection of her successor.

Nominations closed on 24 February 2023 with three candidates: Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf.

Voting in the 2023 SNP leadership election begins on 13 March and ends on 27 March, with the leader to be declared that day.

Unfair contest

On 6 March 2023, Joanna Cherry MP criticised the contest as unfair and claimed the “party machine” was backing Humza Yousaf:

Joanna Cherry has hit out at the unfairness of the SNP’s leadership contest, saying the candidates had been “bounced” into the race to replace Nicola Sturgeon and were forced to come up with their policy packages 'on the hoof'.

A recent poll of 515 SNP members put Humza Yousaf ahead of rivals, with 31 per cent saying they would back him compared to 25% supporting Kate Forbes. Just 11% said they would give their first preference to Ash Regan, who is supported by Joanna Cherry.

Support for Ash Regan

Speaking to the BBC’s "Good Morning Scotland", Ms Cherry said it would be wrong to write off the ex-minister’s bid:

“She's making progress and I've heard a number of people say they've been switched on to her campaign after listening to her properly at the hustings.”

The MP said Ms Regan had shown “great courage and leadership” last year when she resigned as Community Safety Minister over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

“Ash is on the left of the party socio-economically, which is more in line with my views. And she's got a hinterland beyond politics. And she's worked in business. She's worked in PR, and she's worked in policy with the Common Weal think tank. And I think those are all things the party could benefit from. Also, she wants to bring the Scottish Independence movement back together, and involve them in developing a strategy that will actually deliver Independence.

Ms Cherry said all three candidates faced a “pretty major” problem: “They've been bounced overnight into a very short campaign with no resources, no preparation, no backup team, and no facility or time to develop a policy programme. Now, it's no secret that the party machine is behind Humza, and not behind Kate and Ash. We've already had a couple of cases of people wrongfully using the party's internal mailing system to support Humza.

“So my point is this, the party hasn't had a leadership campaign, a leadership election for nearly 20 years. This election should involve a detailed discussion of policy and strategy for the years going forward. Most of the candidates have had no time to prepare their policy packages and are having to do so on the hoof."

She said it was not fair on the candidates, the membership or the country: “This is not an ideal way to be doing things, but we are where we are.”

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The beginning of the end	blog post	27 March 2023	Stuart Campbell	"I don't think there's any chance Humza Yousaf has won the SNP leadership election legitimately. But this morning I'm deeply worried that those still controlling the party have absolutely nothing left to lose by fixing it in his favour."

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References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 10 March 2023.
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