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Bloomberg
The race to succeed Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tightened, the health service and where to go next in the push to break away from the rest of the UK.
As nominations closed for the post of Scottish National Party leader, bookmakers continued to make Health Secretary Humza Yousaf the favourite. But his closest rival, Kate Forbes, who is responsible for finance and the economy in the semi-autonomous Scottish government, regained momentum.
Forbes, 32, is a member of the socially conservative Free Church of Scotland.
Yousaf, 37, has faced criticism from opposition parties over the state of the health service on his watch, with a backlog of procedures and a jump in waiting times for ambulances and emergency care. Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said he should be fired rather than promoted.
But it’s SNP members who ultimately will decide in a ballot running until March 27. A poll by communications agency The Big Partnership reported across Scottish media found 28% backed Forbes and 20% for Yousaf.
A third candidate, former minister Ash Regan, was on 7%. About one third of the roughly 1,000 respondents were undecided.
Whoever prevails will face a daunting task uniting a party behind its flagship policy of seeking independence for Scotland while trying to address a deterioration in the health service, education and the national finances.
Sturgeon, 52, unexpectedly quit on February 15 saying it was time to pass on the baton after more than eight years in office. She leaves a country still roughly split down the middle on the issue of independence with no clear roadmap on how to move the needle.
The UK government is refusing to grant Scotland another referendum, which Sturgeon says is the nation’s democratic right after it voted against Brexit, and the Supreme Court ruled late last year that calling a plebiscite unilaterally would be unlawful.