Ash Regan to stand for SNP leader

[ArabellaScott]

'Ash Regan, the minister who spearheaded the biggest rebellion in SNP history when she resigned her community safety post to oppose Sturgeon’s bill, has told friends she is likely to run for the leadership. She urged former SNP members who quit over Sturgeon’s stance on transgender rights to rejoin the party and participate in the election.'

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0729010a-adf0-11ed-91ef-347dcf6a25f6?shareToken=7e340d6ac34e89f376ed9568b12bef1a

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/16/snp-minister-ash-regan-revolt-sturgeon-gender-reforms-surprise/

news.sky.com/story/rebel-msp-ash-regan-has-thrown-hat-into-the-ring-for-snp-leadership-12812489

Interesting times, eh?

Ah! The ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times".

Thanks 2bazookas and ArabellaScott.

Very interesting times.

So it's Humza v Ash.

She's the economics minister who doesn't understand how the Barnett formula works.

She's currently on maternity leave which is extremely useful for her as it means she can square her conscience by declining to vote at all on the GRA bill (her religious conscience dictates she is against it and she could have voted) but still keep her snout firmly in the trough of the ministerial pay packet.

Seriously do you think dropping the GRA Reform makes the SNP a competent party to run a country?

But not against it enough to risk her ministerial post. She could have voted against the Bill, if she felt that strongly.

Oh not Humza. Please not him.

Anas Sarwar, the leader of the Scottish Labour party was just on the Andrew O'Neil show. O'.Neill gave him a proper grilling over the fact hat he whipped the Labour party to vote for the amendments to the GRR.

Would he ditch the bill altogether given that the Scottish people were two thirds opposed to it?

You got the distinct feeling he senses which way the wind is blowing on this issue and cagily suggested that the priorities were for reform; namely making the GRA " more humane" as well as "protecting single sex spaces".

He knows he dare not suggest ditching the bill altogether as he and his party are too committed, even in spite of themselves.

One issue, of course, is the Ladty Haldane ruling which states that being in receipt of a GRA would for all intents and purposes change one's legal sex; thus making a nonsense of the aim of protecting single sex spaces.

They also had Alex Salmond on and he was pushed as to whether Alba may now rejoin the SNP. He was more interested in a coalition of independence parties and groups, though he did state that he thought that the bill to amend the GRR was a distracting sideshow that had little favour amongst the Scottish people.

She was on maternity leave over the entire period of the three votes - apparently one of the reasons the SNP was so desperate to push it through before Christmas is that she was coming back in the new year and they didn't want to risk a second minister resigning over it, particularly not such a high-profile one.

Ash Regan is pushing the "de facto referendum". She's as bad as any of them

Forbes could have used a "keeping in touch day" logged on remotely to vote against it if she cared that much.

I'm not from UK, so am very confused about representation for Scotland whilst following the SNP situation with great interest.

I understand that Scotland has its own parliament with MSPs, but there also seem to be MPs in Westminster representing Scotland, Joanna Cherry springs to mind. Is there a dual mandate or must a candidate only stand for election for the Scottish Parliament elections OR Westminster elections but not both? Thanks if anyone can clarify for me and apologies for my ignorance.

That is true.

For the SNP, you are unable to stand as both MP and MSP, which is why Joanna Cherry was forced to resign her MSP seat, if my memory serves. There are some who say this rule was created specifically to bar her from standing as First Minister.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-53607198

Douglas Ross, the Tory leader in Scotland, is both MP and MSP.

Sorry, I explained that badly. SNP rules created in 2020 say that an MP has to resign before standing for MSP.

@ArabellaScott Thanks for the information. I was puzzled as I thought I read that some MSPs had a dual mandate, but couldn't understand why SNPs didn't seem to. I get it now. I suppose (correct me if I am wrong) it makes sense for that party as they are separatist not Unionist and you are either for an independent Scotland or you're not, therefore you cannot have two masters, or something like that!

That's not the reason. The SNP MP's in Westminster are every bit as separatist and for an "independent Scotland" as the SNP SMPs in Holyrood.

The official reason is , I suppose, that they've got 2 jobs and can't do both properly. That didn't stop Salmond being an MP and an MSP.

The real reason was almost certainly to make life more difficult for Cherry. I've no particular issue with Sturgeon trying to make life difficult for Cherry - internal bickering, squabbling, petty grudge holding and back stabbing is fine by me.

Well, as I said, it was fine for SNP MPs/MSPs to hold a dual mandate up until 2020, when Joanna Cherry (as an MP) stated her intent to stand as MSP. At which point, there was this hasty rule change.

Cross post.

I know. I wasn't disagreeing with you but with MargaritaRita's interpretation of what you wrote.

To which I've now cross post replied !

Kate Forbes is apparently announcing her candidature today. Angus Robertson is not standing.

So two GC. One not.

I'm not Scottish (or living in Scotland) so forgive me if this is a stupid question. Is Ash Regan's decision to go with 1) rejection of the GRR and 2) willingness to view the next Holyrood election as a de facto independence referendum a good decision? Given Humza Yousaf supports GRR (but has said that Isla Bryant is pretending to be a TW) but doesn't see the election as a proxy for IndyRef2 which way will SNP members go? I see that Kate Forbes is saying she wouldn't have voted for GRR (although IIRC, she could have voted for or against), but I'm not sure of her position on the election=referendum stuff.

i guess I'm asking whether Ash stands a realistic chance in this race and whether Scottish independence trumps GRR nonsense for SNP supporters.

I'm not an SNP supporter. Of the 3, Regan looks slightly less useless but the SNP will likey lose Green support if they pick her and she chooses to drop GRR.

My husband to his embarrassment has a relative who is an SNP MSP - independence trumps everything. Husband's relative privately does not support the GRR but will do what the party tells them to. Relative will drop it if told to, will support it if told to.

Personally I don't much care- they all support an ideology I'm opposed to , although Yousaf is likely to make more of a mess than the other two so he's my preference.The Times Scotland readers are solidly behind Yousaf !