We're parking our tanks on Kate Forbes' lawn as SNP on notice, says Scottish Lib Dem leader

Alex Cole-Hamilton said the Lib Dems are piling resources into key seats in the Highlands, with Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes in their sights

The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has put senior SNP MSPs in the Highlands, including senior leader Kate Forbes, "on notice" ahead of next year's Holyrood election.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said big names such as Ms Forbes, the deputy first minister, will "reap the whirlwind of SNP inadequacy".

Subscribe today for the best Scottish news via our daily newsletter

He said his party would pile resources into winning key target seats in the Highlands, and pointed to recent successes at the general election.

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes | PA

Speaking ahead of the Lib Dem conference in Inverness starting on Friday, Mr Cole-Hamilton said nobody foresaw Angus MacDonald winning Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire for the party in July last year.

Target seats for the Lib Dems at the 2026 Holyrood election include Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, where SNP minister Maree Todd has a majority of 2,591, and Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, where Ms Forbes has a sizeable majority of 15,861.

Mr Cole-Hamilton’s party is also eyeing up Inverness and Nairn, which former minister Fergus Ewing has held since the dawn of devolution. He previously announced he would not stand for the SNP at the next election, but may run as an independent.

Emma Roddick, a former minister, wants to contest the seat for the SNP.

The Scottish Lib Dem leader said this weekend’s gathering would focus "unapologetically" on the state of Highland healthcare.

"In large part, I think that handed the victory to Angus MacDonald,” he told The Scotsman. “But it's also a strong message to the likes of Kate Forbes, Maree Todd and potentially Fergus Ewing if he's running as an independent, that we've got our tanks on your lawn and we are coming."

Mr Cole-Hamilton said he was putting all of these MSPs “on notice”, adding: “And I can tell you, our analysis of the box counts at all of the counts in the Highlands [at the general election] shows that we won each of those seats handily on Scottish parliamentary boundaries.”

Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton | PA

Mr Cole-Hamilton said candidates were already being put in place. "We will be piling our resources into that,” he said. “These are targets for our party and we're really excited about the election to come."

Ms Forbes secured the largest numerical majority at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, while the Lib Dems were in third place. However, the area was once a Lib Dem stronghold and the party is keen to win it back, with local councillor Andrew Baxter selected as its candidate.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: "Any poll that you look at shows us at least doubling, if not trebling or more, our haul of MSPs. Our vote has doubled across both the constituency and the regional vote. Meanwhile, the SNP vote is cratering.

"So yes, you can be a big name, but it doesn't protect you from the national tide. [Former Lib Dem leader and MP] Charles Kennedy very sadly succumbed to that in 2015."

The party leader added: "Whilst I have a lot of time for Kate Forbes personally, she is a political adversary and she, I think, will reap the whirlwind of SNP inadequacy at the coming election."

Mr Cole-Hamilton said Scotland needed a change of government in 2026.

“I would be gutted if people rendered a judgement [and] said we need four, five more years of failure, which is what we would get if the SNP was to form the core of a new government,” he said.

He is friends with Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, whose party has been struggling in the polls in the wake of unpopular UK Labour policies. There was previously speculation the Lib Dems could prop up a Labour government in Scotland led by Mr Sarwar, but this is looking less likely than it once was.

“Anas Sarwar is a friend of mine, we get on very well,” Mr Cole-Hamilton said. “But really that’s his problem. He needs to sort the Labour Party out. My focus is a positive vision for the Liberal Democrats and what we have to offer.”

Elsewhere, Mr Cole-Hamilton said he no longer supports pushing ahead with separate gender reform legislation in Scotland. The Lib Dems backed the SNP’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which was later blocked by the UK government, and Mr Cole-Hamilton supports the principle of self-identification for trans people.

However, he said to proceed "would only harm the people we're trying to help" and his party recognised the need to adopt a UK-wide approach. The Scottish Government has made clear it has no intention of pushing ahead with revised gender reform plans.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “I have a great deal of regret that the debate has become so toxic and so damaging to relationships and communities, and even in families.

“I stand by, and my party stands by, the votes we’ve cast in this Parliament around this issue, on gender recognition. A humane approach to gender recognition remains an unanswered question.

“But given where the debate is, to proceed, to press on, to try and drag that agenda forward would only harm the people we’re trying to help.

“So we recognise that we would need to go back to a four-nations approach, to first principles, that brings the hearts and minds of every community with us on that journey, but I think that’s for another day.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton added: “The level to which this debate has sunk is actually harming people now and dividing communities, so we’re not looking to relitigate those issues that have already come before Parliament.”