Humza Yousaf has said he regrets not offering Kate Forbes a better job in his cabinet. The former first minister offered his leadership rival the rural affairs brief after he beat her in the contest to succeed Nicola Sturgeon.
Forbes saw this as a demotion from her previous Finance Secretary role and rejected it. It came after a brutal leadership race in which Forbes attacked Yousaf’s record in a live TV debate.
Yousaf only lasted a year in the job and Forbes returned to cabinet as Economy Secretary and Deputy First Minister under John Swinney.He was speaking on the BBC radio series surviving politics with former Tory minister Michael Gove.
Yousaf said he was wrong to offer Forbes the rural affairs gig. He said: “I reflect on this a fair bit and I think ultimately, truth be told, I didn’t get it right.”
He said she had listened to him and said she would consider it, but two or three minutes later he saw a tweet which said Forbes had told him “where to shove it”. A staff member then told Yousaf: “I think you’ve got your answer.”
Yousaf said he could have handled the situation better.: “I think it would have made sense to have spoken more to Kate about, ‘well, look, what role do you think you can do, you want to do and it’s seen as enough?’ I wouldn’t suggest rural affairs at all as a demotion, but that’s the way it was viewed and portrayed.”
He also said he had been surprised by Forbes‘ attacks in the TV debate. His staff members had prepared him by asking tough personal questions but he had said at the time: “She’s not going to do that. Kate and I are friends and we go way back.”
Forbes then went for the jugular and attacked Yousaf’s record. She said: “You were a transport minister and the trains were never on time, when you were justice secretary the police were stretched to breaking point, and now as health minister we’ve got record high waiting times.”
Yousaf resigned as First Minister in May after he ended the power sharing deal between the SNP and the Greens. He had initially supported the Bute House Agreement but said it wore down during his time in office.
He said: “Every issue, no matter how kind of nuanced, suddenly became engulfed in controversy and disinformation.” The Greens were so annoyed about being booted out of Government that they withdrew confidence in Yousaf, forcing him to resign.
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