Humza Yousaf has emerged as the clear frontrunner to replace Nicola Sturgeon as support for Highland MSP Kate Forbes continues to plummet following her controversial comments on gay marriage.
The health secretary is now being tipped as the odds-on favourite by bookies to become the next first minister after he launched his campaign on Monday.
Mr Yousaf has positioned himself as the candidate best-placed to build on Ms Sturgeon’s legacy and senior SNP figures have backed him to take on the top job.
By contrast, Ms Forbes has alienated much of her party after admitting she would have voted against gay marriage had she been an MSP at the time.
Key SNP ministers who initially backed her, such as Richard Lochhead and Tom Arthur, have now rowed back on their endorsements.
The party’s finance chief also sparked a backlash after admitting she would have been unable to approve Ms Sturgeon’s transgender self-identification laws.
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Ms Forbes was on maternity leave when the gender reforms vote took place, but would have had to resign had she refused to back them.
Her campaign was derailed even further when she later said having children out of wedlock was against her faith.
She was initially favourite to become new SNP leader along with the party’s former Westminster leader Angus Robertson.
Mr Yousaf’s chances of taking on the top job were seen as being much slimmer due to heavy criticism over his record in Holyrood as health secretary.
Labour claimed he would be “delusional” to run given record A&E waiting times and huge treatment backlogs.
But Mr Robertson’s refusal to stand, along with veterans such as John Swinney and Keith Brown ruling themselves out, means a clear path to Bute House has opened up for Mr Yousaf.
Ash Regan, the third contender for the SNP leadership, rebelled against Ms Sturgeon’s gender reforms and has been heavily critical of party policy since announcing her campaign.
She has claimed majority support for independence-supporting parties at the next Westminster election should be taken as an immediate instruction for Scotland to exit the UK.
Ms Sturgeon’s strategy was to turn the next UK-wide ballot into a vote on independence, but Mr Yousaf admitted at his campaign launch he had doubts over this.
Instead he wants to build greater levels of support for ending the union to the point where it will become “politically impossible” for Westminster to ignore the SNP.
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