Kate Forbes missed smacking ban vote at Holyrood after raising 'concerns' about Bill

dailyrecord.co.uk:

SNP leadership hopeful Kate Forbes is under fire for missing the historic Holyrood vote that outlawed smacking.The Finance Secretary - whose critics in the bitter contest have branded her right wing - did not take part as she was on ministerial business in London.An SNP MSP told the Record Forbes had raised "concerns" behind the scenes during the bill’s passage in 2019.Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "Missing this vote is just the latest blot on the record of Kate Forbes.

It seems like no progressive legislation will be safe in her hands."Forbes is up against Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and backbencher Ash Regan in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and First Minister.The evangelical Christian’s campaign was nearly derailed over socially conservative positions like opposition to gay marriage and having children out of wedlock.Now her views on the banning of smacking, which MSPs overwhelmingly passed in 2019, are under the spotlight.The legislation to end the physical punishment of children was introduced by former Green MSP John Finne and backed by the SNP Government.Forbes, who was a junior minister for public finance and digital economy at the time, backed the Bill’s “general principles” in an early vote, but was not present during the final and decisive vote in October 2019.Yousaf himself has faced criticism after he missed a key vote that legalised same sex marriage in 2014.The Record asked Forbes’ campaign why she did not vote at the final stage, whether she had concerns about the Bill, and whether she believes MSPs were correct in backing the legislation.A spokesperson for Forbes said: “Kate voted for the bill at stage one, which endorsed the general principles of the proposed