Katie Forbes gets SNP nod in bid to succeed Dave Thompson as MSP
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A DINGWALL woman with family roots in Strathnairn and Applecross has been selected as the SNP's candidate to succeed outgoing MSP Dave Thompson in next year's Holyrood election.
Mr Thompson, the SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, is stepping down during the 2016 election.
Ms Forbes was Mr Thompson's personal choice to succeed him, but had to win over the vote of local SNP members to see off the challenge of five other hopefuls on the all-woman shortlist.
Commenting after the result Mr Thompson said: “I am absolutely delighted that Katie Forbes has been chosen as the SNP candidate to succeed me as the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch election hopeful for 2016.
"Katie is a superb candidate and will be a fantastic MSP if she is elected next year.
“She is everything I would look out for in a Highland MSP and I wish her all the best with her upcoming campaign which I will be wholeheartedly supporting”.
He added that Ms Forbes is: “a bright local woman who has among other skills fluent Gaelic, commercial training and a sharp mind”.
(25) stood against five other candidates to win the SNP nomination — Elizabeth MacDonald (Nairnshire and Culloden), Elizabeth Paul (Lochaber and North Lorne), Heather Williams (Preston East Lothian), Muriel Cockburn (Wester Ross) and Susan Lyons (Nairnshire and Culloden).Forbes A former Dingwall Academy pupil, Ms
More than 2500 SNP in the constituency had the chance to vote for their favourite in the postal ballot.
, who left Dingwall Academy in 2008 to study history at the University of Cambridge, was first educated in Gaelic-medium before spending five years as a teenager in Indian schools where her father was working.Forbes Ms
After leaving Cambridge, she worked as research assistant for over a year in Holyrood for Mr Thompson.
