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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Paul Hutcheon

SNP leadership contest result to be announced today after bitter race

The result of the bruising SNP leadership contest will be announced at Murrayfield Stadium this afternoon.

Voting closes at noon and the result is expected at around 2pm.

Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan have been locked in a bitter contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon after she said last month she would be quitting.

The winner will almost certainly be elected as the country’s next First Minister on Tuesday.

The race has been a tumultuous affair, with dramatic resignations and acrimonious clashes between the candidates during live TV debates.

Even interim chief executive Mike Russell said, only a few days ago, that the party is in “a tremendous mess”.

Outgoing leader Sturgeon has defended the situation, saying the SNP is going through “some growing pains”.

Perhaps the most dramatic moment in the leadership campaign was the resignation of Peter Murrell, who had served as SNP chief executive for almost 25 years – and is married to Sturgeon.

He quit with immediate effect after the party initially rubbished reports that its membership had dropped by 30,000 – with the then-SNP head of communications Murray Foote dismissing the claims as “drivel”.

In an embarrassing U-turn, the party then admitted that as of February 15 this year, its membership was at 72,186 – down from 103,884 in 2021.

Foote quit his SNP role and Murrell resigned the following day.

Clashes between the leadership candidates have also made the headlines in recent weeks.

In a bad-tempered STV debate, Forbes attacked Yousaf, saying he would be a “continuity candidate” when the party desperately needs change.

In the harshest exchange of the race thus far, Forbes hit out at the record in Government of Yousaf – who is the current Health Secretary – saying:

“You were a transport minister and the trains were never on time, when you were justice secretary the police were stretched to breaking point, and now as health minister we’ve got record-high waiting times."

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