Kate ForbesScotland’s Chancellor of Finance and favorite to replace the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeonhas apologized this Tuesday for some statements the day before in which he recognized that he had voted against the Gay marriage if he had had a seat when the vote took place in 2014.
“Unequivocally, I apologize for any harm and offense I have caused. I fully defend the right of people in this country to marryas they have been able to do in the last nine years ”, he apologized on the chain ITV.
After this Monday he recognized in Channel 4 who would have voted against gay marriage, some of his Scottish National Party (SNP) colleagues have withdrawn their support for the primaries, among them first swords such as the ministers of the Treasury, Tom Arthur, and of Children, Clare Haughey.
The coordinator of the Health and Wellness Committee, Gillian Martin, said that Forbes’ comments had made her “uncomfortable” and that as a result she would not support his campaign. “We have to show our support for marriage equality at full speed without buts (…) I wish him the best, (…) but I have red lines and this is one,” she said.
Despite the commotion caused within the SNP, Forbes believes that his candidacy need not have suffered because there are still “a large number of party members, most of whom are not on Twitter.”
“I understand that people have very strong views on these issues. I think the public longs for politicians to answer direct questions with direct answers and that is certainly what I tried to do yesterday in the media. That does not necessarily allow many nuances ”, he has justified in the BBC.
“My position in these matters is that I will defend to the maximum the rights of all people in a pluralistic and tolerant society, to live and love free from harassment and fear”, and that includes, he stressed, also the LGTBI collective.
Forbes was first elected to a seat in Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament, in 2016, two years after gay marriage became legal, which she would not have voted for on religious grounds. She is part of the Free Church of Scotland and She has also been against sexual relations outside of marriage.. “It would be wrong according to my faith,” he said in skynews.
Forbes announced his candidacy to lead the Scottish nationalists this Monday, a day after the Minister of Health, Humza Yousaf, and the deputy Ash Regan, who already left his post as head of Community Safety after the controversy ‘trans law’passed at Holyrood, but blocked in London.
The deadline for submitting proposals ends on February 24 at noon and the winner will be announced the 27th of March after a membership vote. That day, Sturgeon will step down from him after more than eight years at the helm of Scotland.
Last week, Sturgeon announced her resignation as First Minister of Scotland, after a term marked by the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, the repeated aspirations of a second independence referendum and, in recent weeks, by the controversy surrounding of the ‘trans law’.
(With information from EP)
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Source-www.infobae.com