Kate Forbes served as the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy from 2020 to 2023.
72 Facts About Kate Forbes
2.
Kate Forbes earned a BA degree in history at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and then an MSc in diaspora and migration history from the University of Edinburgh.
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Kate Forbes was elected to the Scottish Parliament in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election and quickly rose within the SNP.
4.
Kate Forbes's tenure was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland, and its economic impact, and the cost of living crisis in the UK.
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Kate Forbes has been on maternity leave since July 2022, with Deputy First Minister John Swinney covering her duties in her absence.
6.
Kate Forbes responded to the controversy by stating that "in a free society you can do what you want".
7.
Kate Forbes was defeated by rival candidate Humza Yousaf and he was appointed first minister.
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Kate Forbes turned down an offer to serve as rural affairs secretary in Yousaf's government and left government to sit on the SNP backbenches.
9.
Kate Elizabeth Forbes was born in Dingwall in Ross and Cromarty, Scotland on 6 April 1990.
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Kate Forbes is the eldest of four siblings: her mother is a teacher and her father is an accountant.
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Kate Forbes's parents were missionaries for the evangelical Free Church of Scotland.
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Kate Forbes spent her early years in the village of Marybank, where her parents ran a small business.
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At an early age, Kate Forbes moved to India for three years, where her father worked for various religious charities to provide healthcare to people who could not afford it.
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Kate Forbes returned to Scotland and was taught in a Scottish Gaelic school, where she became fluent in the language.
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Kate Forbes returned to India when she was ten and studied at Woodstock School in the foothills of the Himalayas.
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Kate Forbes returned to Scotland, this time in Glasgow, at the age of 15 where she attended a secondary school in the city before moving back to the Highlands to finish her schooling at Dingwall Academy.
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When Kate Forbes was seventeen she got a motorbike licence and would take it to her New Look job.
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Kate Forbes was a fan of the American singer Taylor Swift.
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Kate Forbes attended Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 2011.
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Kate Forbes then studied at the University of Edinburgh, where she gained a Master of Science in Diaspora and Migration History in 2013.
21.
Kate Forbes joined the Scottish National Party in 2011, having previously been active in the party's youth wing the Young Scots for Independence.
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Kate Forbes went on to work for Oxfam Scotland as a campaigns and policy officer, where she focused on issues such as poverty, inequality, and climate change.
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Kate Forbes later studied to qualify as a chartered accountant and worked at Barclays for two years.
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Kate Forbes was part of an SNP campaign to address the gender pay gap around employment in the Highlands.
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Kate Forbes was elected in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, doubling the majority from her predecessor from 4995 to 9045.
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Kate Forbes served on the Scottish Parliament's Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, the Health and Sport Committee and the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee.
27.
Kate Forbes served as Parliamentary Liaison Officer for Finance and the Constitution.
28.
In 2017, Kate Forbes launched The Final Straw, a national campaign to ban the use of plastic straws in Scotland.
29.
Kate Forbes wrote to all of Scotland's 32 councils to support the campaign, with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar being the first Scottish council to pledge to go plastic straw-free.
30.
Kate Forbes's campaign was successful after a ban of single-use plastic was introduced in August 2022.
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Kate Forbes has spoken in favour of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status as a possible way to protect the language.
32.
Kate Forbes campaigned for local issues, such as increasing the number of foster carers in the Highlands, and raised concerns of a lack of teachers in specialist subjects in the Highlands.
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Kate Forbes was awarded "One to Watch" at the 2018 Scottish Politician of the Year awards, having been nominated the previous year.
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Kate Forbes supported the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work.
35.
In September 2018, The David Hume Institute reported that the government had made "no progress" on improving productivity in workplaces; Kate Forbes commented that "over the last decade, productivity in Scotland has grown at more than three times the rate it has across the UK as a whole".
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In 2018, Kate Forbes reiterated the SNP's committment to 100 per cent broadband coverage throughout Scotland; the original 2021 completion target was later put back.
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Kate Forbes opposed the proposal to devolve business rates to Scottish councils.
38.
Kate Forbes was left to deliver the budget within hours of preparation.
39.
In July 2022, John Swinney took on responsibility for the Finance and Economy portfolio as Kate Forbes went on maternity leave.
40.
Kate Forbes is the first Cabinet Secretary in the Scottish Government to take maternity leave.
41.
Kate Forbes left the Scottish Government in March 2023 after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon resigned, and new First Minister Humza Yousaf offered her the role of Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands in his Government.
42.
Ahead of Christmas 2021 Kate Forbes delivered her budget in which she spoke of "very difficult choices" because of the "acute" problems posed by Covid.
43.
In December 2021, Kate Forbes introduced the 2022 Scottish budget, detailing the government's spending proposals amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
44.
Kate Forbes laid firm her commitment to keep income tax rates the same the budget increased the thresholds at which it is paid for low income earners.
45.
Kate Forbes announced the council tax freeze, which was imposed last year, would come to an end.
46.
Kate Forbes is considered a "rising star" within the party, although her religious views have been seen as an obstacle by some party members.
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Kate Forbes is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, an evangelical Calvinist denomination with socially conservative positions, such as opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.
48.
Kate Forbes has previously stated she "[makes her] own decisions" on issues "according to [her] faith, not according to the diktat of any church".
49.
Kate Forbes pledged that she would "protect the rights of everybody in Scotland".
50.
Opponents to the Yousaf campaign called this move a demotion Kate Forbes emphasised any role in government was privilege to her.
51.
Kate Forbes tuned down the offer and instead left government.
52.
Kate Forbes sits as an SNP backbencher, where she continues to represent her Highland constituency of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch.
53.
Kate Forbes was announced as a new columnist for The National in April 2023.
54.
Kate Forbes described the events that followed Sturgeon's resignation as turmoil for the party.
55.
Kate Forbes quoted her leadership slogan of "continuity won't cut it" as she urged for integrity, trust and transparency for voters.
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Kate Forbes has widely been described as socially and economically conservative, in contrast with the generally socially liberal policies of the SNP.
57.
Kate Forbes has called for a restart of the SNP's independence strategy.
58.
Kate Forbes has considered Sturgeon's proposal of using a parliamentary election as a de facto referendum to be a way to apply pressure on the UK government to grant permission to hold a formal referendum "rather than it being necessarily a referendum in and of itself".
59.
Kate Forbes said she wanted to achieve independence by delivering economic growth.
60.
At the first hustings, Kate Forbes said she would seek the "legal powers to hold a referendum" on independence within 3 months of the new UK general election.
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In 2018, Kate Forbes was a member of the Sustainable Growth Commission, a blueprint of the economic policy and currency for an independent Scotland.
62.
In March 2022, Kate Forbes launched a report outlining Scotland's National Strategy for Economic Transformation, which is her plan to improve Scotland's economy over the following 10 years.
63.
Kate Forbes stated the Scottish Government's proposed deposit return scheme would cause "economic carnage".
64.
In 2018, Kate Forbes made a pro-life statement at a prayer breakfast, saying that the treatment of the unborn is a "measure of true progress" one day after a Westminster debate on abortion.
65.
On 20 February 2023, Kate Forbes stated that if she had been an elected MSP in Holyrood when same-sex marriage was legalised in Scotland in 2014 she would have voted against the measure.
66.
Kate Forbes has stated that she believes that a trans woman is a "biological male who identifies as a woman".
67.
Kate Forbes said a "rapist cannot be a woman" and that Isla Bryson, a transgender woman who was convicted of raping of two women prior to her gender transition, is "man".
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Kate Forbes did not participate in the final vote on the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in December 2022 due to being on maternity leave.
69.
Kate Forbes later stated that she would not have supported the bill.
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Kate Forbes has been married to Alasdair "Ali" MacLennan since 2021.
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Kate Forbes has three step-daughters, MacLennan's children with his first wife, who died suddenly in October 2014.
72.
Kate Forbes stated that others have the choice to do so, as "In a free society you can do what you want".