KATE Forbes’s first job in the Scottish Parliament was funded by an anti-abortion Christian lobby group, it has been revealed.
An investigation by openDemocracy found that Forbes’s role as a researcher for former SNP MSP Dave Thompson was funded by Christian Action, Research and Education (CARE).
CARE has funded internship programmes for more than 20 MPs in Westminster since 2010 and is known for its opposition to abortion, LGBT+ rights and sex education in schools.
The group also employs a lobbyist at Holyrood who in recent years has met with numerous MSPs to discuss hate crime and transgender rights legislation amongst other topics.
The leadership programme pays for supporters of the group to become researchers for MSPs for around a year, providing them with an insight into how parliament works and is advertised to attract “talented Christian graduates who have a desire to serve the Lord in public life”.
It is understood that Forbes was employed by Thompson through the CARE internship scheme in 2011, graduating with a history degree from Cambridge University that same year.
When he retired from his role as MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch in 2016, Forbes was his pick to replace him, which she proceeded to do by winning the seat at the 2016 Holyrood election.
Thompson told openDemocracy that CARE interns were employed “to learn, to gain experience” and that he “saw it as helping train them and develop them and stretch them.”
Now a member of the Alba Party and convener of the Christians for Independence campaign group, Thompson said that CARE “identifies people who have leadership characteristics and offers to support them.”
The group reportedly has an annual income of nearly £2 million, although it does not reveal the sources of its funding.
Last week, Forbes said that she would not have voted for the 2014 legislation which legalised same-sex marriage in Scotland.
However, she later said she would “uphold the laws that have been won” and has vowed to “protect the rights of everybody in Scotland, particularly minorities, to live and to love without fear or harassment in a pluralistic and tolerant society.”
