Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes admits SNP has a 'problem with misogyny' and must make changes

Kate Forbes has admitted the SNP has a problem with misogyny in its ranks and must ‘make changes’.

The deputy First Minister accepted some women had suffered ‘very difficult experiences’ as a result of out-dated, sexist attitudes in the party.

The Highlands MSP said the problem was not confined to the SNP - and blighted politics around the world - but now had to be confronted at home.

Ms Forbes spoke out after the issue was raised this week by former Edinburgh MP Joanna Cherry KC and current MSP Elena Whitman.

After her defeat in the general election, Ms Cherry said she would not miss the ‘stinking misogyny of some of the men I’ve had to work with in the SNP’.

While Ms Whitham, who quit as drugs policy minister in February citing post-traumatic stress, said she experienced misogyny in the SNP last year and it ‘very nearly broke me’.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, the Ayrshire MSP added: ‘It cannot be allowed to persist’.

Their comments online prompted Oban councillor Julie McKenzie to thank Ms Cherry for ‘calling out the misogyny that’s rife and unchecked within our party’.

She said: ‘I could write a book on the Argyll and Bute boys club. One day I might.’

Ms Forbes, 34, who narrowly lost the SNP leadership to Humza Yousaf last year, was asked about Ms Cherry and Ms Whitham’s comments on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday.

She said: ‘I don’t think it’s any surprise that there is a misogyny at work across the Scottish public square.

‘I’ve spoken to both of the people that you’ve mentioned just there in terms of their experience, their very difficult experiences, and why we need to make changes.

‘But it’s important to say that this is not unique to any one political party, and it’s not unique to Scotland.

‘It is an issue that, right across Western democracies, we are struggling with enormously - with social media, with the polarizing and toxic nature of our politics.

‘It was one of the reasons that Nicola Sturgeon said that she was standing down as well. 

So it’s a much bigger problem.’ She added: ‘It’s an issue that those of us who are in senior roles within government and who are women need to do as much as we can to root out, and also to be a role model for other women.

‘Because the biggest risk is, of course, that other women therefore don’t want to stand for politics.’ Ms Cherry last night confirmed she spoke regularly to Ms Forbes and welcomed her fresh approach.

In 2021, then SNP member Grant Karte was barred by a court from contacting Ms Cherry for five years after sending her rape threats.

The intimidation was linked to Ms Cherry’s views on gender reforms and sex-based women’s rights, which bucked the party line.

She later revealed Nicola Sturgeon and then SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford gave her ‘no support whatsoever’.

Ms Cherry told the Mail yesterday: ‘I think there’s a deeply embedded problem of misogyny in the party going back several years, and I think the leadership has failed to tackle it.

‘But Kate has been supportive and I’m grateful to her for that. I didn’t have any support from Sturgeon.’ Ms Cherry said she and Ms Forbes had spoken frequently in recent years and she believed the MSP was a victim of misogyny in the SNP leadership contest.

She highlighted how Ms Forbes had been criticised over her membership of the devout Free Church of Scotland, in a way other SNP figures were not.

Ms Cherry said: ‘Look at what happened during the leadership campaign. Look at the way she was attacked. It speaks for itself.

‘Gordon Wilson was a member of the same church as Kate and led the party for many years [1979 to 1990] in different times. Ian Blackford is a member of that church.

‘There was a particular aspect to the criticisms that she received.

‘We’ve long had a position in the party where we welcome people from all religions, that have their own conscience views, as long as they’re not going to them on the rest of us.

‘I don’t think there was ever any suggestion that Kate was going to roll back equal marriage, she was just expressing her religious views. I do think there was an element of misogyny to it.”

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