Kate Forbes has held talks with John Swinney over deal to avert leadership contest

Kate Forbes has discussed a deal with John Swinney to avert a leadership contest, but is also pressing ahead with drawing up a campaign if she decides to run for office again.

Kate Forbes has held talks with John Swinney over potentially taking a job in his Cabinet if she steps aside to allow her rival to be coronated, but has lined up a campaign if she decides to launch a leadership bid.

Ms Forbes has been developing policies and getting a campaign team and resources together. But she held talks with Mr Swinney on Tuesday over a possible deal to avert a leadership contest.

The former finance secretary has said she is “weighing up” a second attempt at becoming SNP leader, pointing to a “groundswell of support” within the party for her to stand to replace Humza Yousaf.

Kate Forbes MSP arrives at the Scottish Parliament building. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The First Minister will not endorse any candidate to replace him but said that Mr Swinney and Ms Forbes both have “very good attributes”, insisting they are "both assets to our party”.

Ms Forbes and Mr Swinney are the only two MSPs to confirm they are considering standing to succeed Mr Yousaf ahead of Monday’s deadline.

It has emerged that Mr Swinney met Ms Forbes on Tuesday to discuss a potential deal if she agrees to step aside. But it is understood that although a top job in a Swinney Cabinet was discussed, no agreement was reached, with a source close to Ms Forbes stressing it was an “informal meeting”.

Speculation has emerged that Mr Swinney is not keen to be dragged into a leadership contest and he is still considering whether launching a bid is the right thing for him and his family.

First Minister Humza Yousaf will not endorse an SNP leadership candidate (Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

A source close to Ms Forbes has told The Scotsman the former Cabinet minister is drawing up policies and attempting to get a team and resources in place to run a leadership campaign. The insider suggested that planning will inform whether or not Ms Forbes proceeds with launching a bid for Bute House.

The source said: “I can confirm she is both developing policy proposals and getting team/resourcing in place. This activity will inform her final decision.”

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Forbes suggested she had received a lot of messages of support, but that her "priority is to identify what is right for the country, the party and her family", as she mulls over a campaign to become the next first minister.

John Swinney is considering a bid for Bute House (Picture:Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

Ms Forbes warned the next leader must put forward a “big, broad vision" for Scotland. She said: "Think about the last few years – cost-of-living crisis, recovery from Covid, challenges across our public sector because of limited financing from the UK government – that requires a party to be nimble."

She added: “Ultimately as a democrat, the key for me is to weigh up what the members’ priorities area and that’s precisely why I’m listening right now and not ruling anything out.”

Ms Forbes insisted she would "fundamentally disagree" with any suggestion she would lose another leadership contest after last year’s defeat, stressing that "over the last contest I had 50 per cent of support of the members".

It comes as Mr Yousaf declined to give his endorsement to either potential candidate and warned against another bitter leadership contest.

“I would say to supporters of any candidate that we will gain nothing if we talk each other down,” he told the BBC. "The only people who benefit from that are our opponents."

Pressed over whether this was a dig at Ms Forbes, who he narrowly defeated last year, the First Minister admitted he was also “self-reflecting on the fact that I was involved in that campaign”.

He added: “I look back at how my behaviour was during that and my team’s behaviour.

“Unity is everything is you want your party to be successful.”

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Yousaf stressed that SNP members will have differing views on what is best for the party as he suggested any potential candidates should be given time to decide whether launching a leadership bid is right for them.

He said: “With almost 70,000 members, to think that the membership is some sort of monolith or homogeneous group, would be incorrect.

“There will be a range of views - some that believe that a contest is in the best interest, some that believe that it’s not in the best interest.”

Pressed over whether the SNP needs a new perspective to follow his time in office, Mr Yousaf insisted that he “certainly won’t be interfering or intervening”.

He pleaded for those involved in any leadership tussle to “talk your candidate up”.

The First Minister added: “John and Kate both have many attributes - very good attributes indeed. Talk them up.”

Speaking to LBC News, Mr Yousaf said “both could do the job that I’m doing”, stressing “they’re capable, both of them, of doing that job”.

His predecessor Nicola Sturgeon, speaking to reporters at Holyrood, said that Ms Forbes was “undoubtedly a woman of considerable talent” as she said any contest should be “positive” and “forward-looking”.

Asked about Ms Forbes’s religious view as a member of the Free Church of Scotland that guided her at last year’s leadership contest to state she would not have backed equal marriage when it was legalised in 2014, Mr Yousaf told the BBC that both she and Mr Swinney were “committed Christians".

Mr Yousaf said he, as a Muslim, had shown that a person of faith could enter Bute House.

He said: "What people will judge any potential candidate on are their policies, what they stand for, what they will advocate, what they might end up moving away from in terms of policy. That is the right discussion to have – not whether somebody of faith can be first minister."

He said suggestions he was forced out to make way for Mr Swinney to take over was “complete and utter rubbish”.

Pressed by the BBC over whether the Scottish Green’s lack of trust in the Cass review into gender identity services in NHS England contributed to him ending the Bute House Agreement, Mr Yousaf suggested that it was.

He said: "I made it very clear my position and the government's position was on the Cass review, but it is fair to say that of course those comments that were made by Patrick Harvie on the Sunday Show did upset a lot in my group.

"We co-operated well with the Greens for almost three years on a number of issues but it was clearly becoming strained – the Bute House Agreement."

But Mr Yousaf admitted he “paid the price” for the way he handled the ending of the Bute House Agreement.

He added: “I have to acknowledge the manner in which I did it caused great upset and that's on me.”