Former Scottish Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes has said she has no regrets about refusing to hide her Christian beliefs during the 2023 SNP leadership contest, despite widespread speculation that her stance cost her the party leadership.
Speaking at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London, Forbes reflected on the controversy that surrounded her campaign after she said she would not have voted for same-sex marriage legislation in 2014 had she been an MSP at the time.
According to The Christian Post, Forbes also reaffirmed her support for traditional Christian teaching on marriage, sex before marriage and gender, views consistent with her membership of the Free Church of Scotland.
The comments prompted significant criticism during the leadership race, with some calling for her to withdraw from the contest.
Forbes said she drew encouragement from advice given by her father, who told her that "it's never worth the compromise".
She went on to lose the leadership race to Humza Yousaf, who received 47.9% of the final vote.
Looking back on the campaign, Forbes said remaining true to her convictions felt more important than the result itself.
"The end result felt like a victory because during that period I thought: I have not given in when I could have," she told the ARC audience.
"I did lose the contest but I absolutely won the public support and that feels good."
Forbes also used her speech to warn about what she sees as the growing marginalisation of Christian voices in public life.
Referring to the assisted dying debate at Westminster, she said faith-based contributions were being "repeatedly and regularly de-legitimised" by campaigners who dismissed religious arguments as inherently biased while accepting secular moral frameworks without similar scrutiny.
"Nobody demands that of anybody subscribing to the new faith, the new ideologies and the new philosophies of our day," she said.
Forbes urged Christians to ground their beliefs in what she described as "external truths that will outlast every single one of us", including biblical principles relating to human dignity, liberty and the value of life.
She also warned against abandoning the West's Judeo-Christian heritage.
"Our freedoms are not inevitable or guaranteed. There is an umbilical cord between them and the Bible. Separate that, and I invite you to consider the alternative."