THE SNP’s national secretary has confirmed details of how the party’s leadership race will work following the resignation of Humza Yousaf.
Nominations to enter the contest to succeed the First Minister have now opened, with Lorna Finn taking to Twitter/X to confirm these opened at 11.59pm on Monday evening.
She added that “nominations will close at noon on Monday, May 6” and that “any member wishing to declare their candidacy should email national.secretary@snp.org for a nomination form”.
No candidates have entered the race officially although former deputy first minister John Swinney has said he is giving “active consideration” to calls for him to succeed Yousaf.
A number of party figures, including Stephen Flynn, Ian Blackford (below) and Keith Brown have called on Swinney to go for the role.
“I’m giving very careful consideration to standing to being leader of the SNP,” the former deputy first minister said.
“I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed by requests that have been made of me to do that, with many messages from many colleagues across the party.
“I’ve got lots of things to think about, there’s the whole question of my family and I have to make sure that I do the right thing by my family, they’re precious to me. I have to do the right thing by my party and by my country.”
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Elsewhere, SNP MSP Fergus Ewing backed former finance secretary Kate Forbes to go for the role.
Following Yousaf’s resignation, Forbes issued a statement praising his “statesmanship and compassion” although did not address whether she would stand to replace the First Minister.
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