London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 06, 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
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
×