Talk of Blackford running should be taken ‘with huge dose of salt’, says Forbes

Talk of former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford running to replace Kate Forbes should be taken with a “huge dose of salt”, the deputy First Minister has said.

Forbes announced earlier this week she would be standing down as the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch at next year’s election.

Newspaper reports subsequently suggested Blackford was considering seeking the nomination after being encouraged by members.

But appearing at a live recording of the Herald’s Unspun podcast at the Edinburgh Fringe, Forbes said she had spoken to the former MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber in recent days and he had not mentioned considering seeking the seat.

The Deputy First Minister said she was taking such reports with a “huge dose of salt”.

“I had a chat with him a few days ago and that certainly wasn’t in the conversation,” she said.

Forbes added that the question of her successor becomes an issue for local party members.

“I do think it needs to be a healthy competition and certainly he hasn’t told me that,” she added.

Asked if she was likely to vote for the former Westminster leader, who was ousted by current incumbent Stephen Flynn, to fill her seat, Forbes refused to be drawn, saying instead that she would wait to see who the candidates were.

The deputy First Minister also dodged a question on who would be the next leader of the SNP in her absence.

Forbes, Flynn and Housing Secretary Mairi McAllan have widely been seen as the likely contenders in any future contest, but the deputy First Minister said she rejected the premise of the question from a journalist in the audience.

She also expanded on her decision for leaving Holyrood next year, saying the ultimate breaking point came following a visit to an Indian orphanage last month.

“I was just really overwhelmed that these kids, these really precious kids, didn’t have something that my daughter did have and that my absence from home so often was a serious matter,” she said.

“I realised that in voluntarily signing up for another five years, I was choosing to essentially say goodbye to her every Monday morning and say hello again, hopefully, on a Friday night – on a good week, sometimes on a Saturday night … I just don’t have the heart to do that for another five years.”