John Swinney has axed the post of minister for independence, in a clear signal to Scottish voters that his government is focused on their immediate cost of living concerns before the general election.
The post, held by Jamie Hepburn, was created by the previous first minister, Humza Yousaf, a year ago, with the main responsibility being publishing a series of papers on how different aspects of government would operate under Scottish independence. With no referendum imminent, opposition parties criticised the publications as a waste of taxpayers’ money. The thirteenth in the series, on justice in an independent Scotland, was published last month.
Alyn Smith MP, the Scottish National party’s Europe spokesperson at Westminster, told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme that “all of our government ministers are focused on independence in Europe”.
Swinney said on Monday when he became the SNP leader that he wanted to persuade people of the case for independence by creating a “vibrant economy” and tackling challenges across public services.
The announcement came as part of a minor ministerial shake-up following Swinney’s limited cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday. After being sworn in as first minister at the court of session, he appointed Kate Forbes as his deputy. The former finance secretary stepped aside to allow Swinney to stand unopposed for the SNP leadership.
Forbes, who narrowly lost to Yousaf in last year’s leadership election to replace Nicola Sturgeon, is a social conservative who split the party when she disclosed she would not have voted for equal marriage. She has also been critical of the stalled gender recognition reform bill, which was passed with cross-party support at Holyrood, then blocked by Westminster.
Asked on Wednesday if she had a message for LGBTQ+ people after her return to cabinet, Forbes said she would support Swinney in “finding places of consensus”.
Smith said there were “huge areas of consensus … we also need to get back to the SNP being a big tent where there’s room for everybody, as there is in the whole of Scotland. Scotland’s a big tent but we’re too small a community to exclude people, and people of faith should have a role in politics.”
He said Forbes’ position on equalities issues was “a matter for her to work through her conscience”.
The Scottish Greens on Wednesday expressed concerns about Forbes’ “quite startlingly social conservative views”. Her elevation is considered an olive branch from Swinney to those in the SNP who had expressed reservations about the party’s governing partnership with the Scottish Greens – ditched by Yousaf two weeks ago, precipitating his resignation – and its influence on policy including rural affairs, just transition, economic growth and LGBTQ+ reforms.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland on Thursday, Lorna Slater, the Scottish Greens’ co-leader, said her party was experiencing a “surge” in membership, “particularly people in the LGBTQ+ community are now looking at the SNP and thinking: ‘Oh my goodness, is this really the home for me?’.”
In other ministerial announcements, Swinney brought back Ivan McKee, a key ally of Forbes and a respected business communicator, as minister for public finance. Meanwhile, Emma Roddick, the minister tasked with guiding the bill to ban conversion practices through Holyrood, returns to the backbenches.
