SNP MPs with south Asian links among contenders to succeed Sturgeon as Scottish first minister

Two SNP MPs who have south Asian connections are among the possible contenders to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as the first minister of Scotland.

Sturgeon announced her resignation dramatically Wednesday after more than eight eventful years in office, setting off the race for a new leader to deliver on her party's faltering campaign for independence from the UK.

Finance secretary Kate Forbes, health secretary Humza Yousaf, constitution secretary Angus Robertson, deputy first minister John Swinney and MP Joanna Cherry KC are in the reckoning to become the next first minister, according to media reports.

While Yousaf’s parents emigrated to the UK from Pakistan, Forbes was raised in India before she returned to Scotland.

Forbes has been tipped as the natural successor to Nicola Sturgeon ever since her election to the Scottish parliament in 2016 and her possible accession to the leadership looks set only to grow, the Independent said.

Born in Dingwall in northern Scotland, she spent her three early years in India, where her father was involved in providing healthcare to needy people. She returned to Scotland where she was enrolled in Scottish Gaelic School before going back to India. She studied at Woodstock School in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand and then returned to Glasgow aged 15. She completed her schooling at Dingwall Academy.

Forbes, 32, is currently on maternity leave.

“I had a very strange upbringing that’s quite difficult to categorise,” Forbes told Premier Christianity in 2021.

“My parents always disagreed with the characterisation of them as missionaries. Growing up, reading stories of Hudson Taylor and Elisabeth Elliot, my sense of missionaries was of brave, courageous souls that ended up being martyred for their faith. We were a fairly ordinary family that found ourselves in India. My dad was involved with Bible teaching and he’s also an accountant, so he was managing the finances of a group of mission hospitals, trying to ensure that people were able to access free healthcare,” she said.