The first woman to lead Scotland's budget and a high-stakes leadership bid
In short: Kate Forbes broke historical ground as the first woman to deliver a Scottish budget. However, her rise to the top of the Scottish National Party was marked by a complex intersection of high-level economic policy, personal faith, and intense internal party friction over social issues.
Born in Dingwall and raised in both India and Scotland, Kate Forbes rose quickly through the Scottish National Party (SNP). After serving as a researcher and working as a trainee graduate accountant at Barclays, she was elected as an MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch in 2016. Her political career reached a major milestone in February 2020 when she became the first woman to deliver the Scottish Budget, a role she held as Cabinet Secretary for Finance from 2020 to 2023.
Her tenure was defined by managing the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis. She navigated difficult decisions, including a £371 million cut to local authority funding in 2021, which drew significant criticism from all 32 of Scotland's council leaders. Despite these tensions, she oversaw significant social security investments, such as a £4bn funding total for social security, which included doubling the Scottish Child Payment from £10 to £20.
Forbes' political trajectory was also shaped by her identity as a member of the evangelical Free Church of Scotland. In 2023, she launched a bid for the SNP leadership, positioning herself as a front-runner who won 47.9% of the final ballot. However, her candidacy faced significant pushback from colleagues due to her socially conservative views on sexual ethics and abortion. After losing the leadership to Humza Yousaf, she briefly sat as a backbencher before being appointed as Deputy First Minister in May 2024 under John Swinney.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Kate Forbes
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