London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Oct 18, 2025

SNP leadership rivals likely to tear up Nicola Sturgeon’s main policies

SNP leadership rivals likely to tear up Nicola Sturgeon’s main policies

Divisions open up in party as candidates challenge policies such as drinks deposit scheme and gender recognition reforms

Many of Nicola Sturgeon’s major policies are under threat after deep divisions emerged in the SNP leadership contest, with rivals attacking key pieces of legislation.

In the last 24 hours, Scottish ministers have announced they are postponing a bill setting up a new multibillion pound national care service until after the contest, and controversial plans to impose a 20p deposit on all drinks bottles and cans is likely to be changed after attacks from small producers and shops.

Both policies have been criticised by candidates competing to replace Sturgeon as Scottish National party leader and first minister later this month after she suddenly announced her resignation in February.

Other policies championed by Sturgeon, including the faster closure of North Sea oilfields to protect the climate and using the next UK election as a de facto independence referendum, have come under attack as the three candidates try to appeal to different groups within the party before voting opens on 13 March.

In further evidence of generational shift in the party following Sturgeon’s departure, the widely respected deputy first minister John Swinney announced on Thursday afternoon that he would leave the Scottish government after nearly 16 years and return to the backbenches once a new first minister had been appointed next month.

The divisions dominated first minister’s questions on Thursday. “This contest is an absolute bin fire,” said Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader. “The SNP is so split and divided that they even wanted to ban the media from hustings.”

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said all three candidates were “trashing her record”. The SNP, he added, had “turned in on itself [with] all three candidates falling over themselves to distance themselves from the Scottish government’s flawed policies”.

Sturgeon retorted that since both the Tories and Labour had been riven by divisive leadership battles they were in no place to condemn the SNP.

Humza Yousaf visits a community cafe in Dalkeith on a leadership campaign visit on 2 March.


Even so, this contest marks the first time that the SNP’s flagship policies have been under sustained and public attack from within the party after decades of exceptional discipline under Sturgeon and her predecessor, Alex Salmond.

Only Humza Yousaf, the health secretary, has promised to support Sturgeon’s commitment to challenge the UK government’s decision to block the gender recognition bill, which was passed at Holyrood with cross-party support last December.

Both female candidates oppose the principle of self-identification at the heart of the bill. Kate Forbes, the finance secretary, has said challenging Westminster was “not a priority” for the Scottish public, while Ash Regan, a former community safety minister, believes a court challenge would probably fail and “we are going to be throwing probably hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money into something that the public don’t support”.

Ash Regan taking part in the first SNP leadership hustings in Cumbernauld.


Meanwhile, Forbes has predicted the deposit scheme could cause “economic carnage” for Scottish drinks firms, with Regan saying the scheme itself needed to be “recycled”. Yousaf has promised to exempt small businesses from the scheme for a year if he wins.

Speaking to reporters after a visit to Ukrainian families in Glasgow on Thursday, Forbes said she remained “very supportive” of the deposit scheme and that her concerns were “purely about implementation”.

Regan and Forbes have also attacked Sturgeon’s wish to accelerate the transition from North Sea oil and gas to increase their appeal to SNP members around Aberdeen, the UK’s oil capital. In an implicit attack on Sturgeon’s leadership, Forbes told the Guardian last week: “There’s a perception that decisions have been made by too few people in the SNP.”

Kate Forbes meets Ukrainian families who have settled in Glasgow at Sikorski Polish club on 2 March.


Sturgeon has said she will not back a specific candidate but it is widely believed Yousaf is her preferred successor.

About 100,000 SNP members are entitled to vote, with the result expected on Monday 27 March.

The divisions raise significant questions about the future of another strategy central to Sturgeon’s time in office: her coalition deal with the pro-independence Scottish Green party under which the Greens’ co-leaders became government ministers in September 2021.

The deposit return scheme, gender recognition reforms and action on climate were central to their power-sharing deal, which also cemented a pro-independence majority at Holyrood that would fracture if the Greens resigned from government.

The leadership contest has delayed the consultation on a comprehensive ban on conversion practices, another SNP-Green commitment, with equalities campaigners concerned both Forbes and Regan will water down proposals.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
×