Nicola Sturgeon's legacy TORN UP as leadership hopefuls eviscerate her policies
Nicola Sturgeon's policies are being dropped by those looking to succeed her
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SNP leadership hopefuls have pledged to rip up key policies championed by Nicola Sturgeon during her time as First Minister.
Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan have all vowed to drop legislation currently passing through the Scottish Parliament.
Meanwhile in the last 24 hours Scottish ministers have confirmed they are postponing a bill setting up a new multibillion pound national care service and are looking to drastically alter plans to impose a 20p deposit on all drinks bottles and cans.
Both Forbes and Regan have indicated they will not challenge the UK Government's block on Sturgeon's controversial gender self-identification legislation, while Yousaf has spoken out about the drink bottle deposit scheme.
Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan have all vowed to drop legislation currently passing through the Scottish Parliament
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It comes after all three have also rejected Sturgeon's plan to treat the next general election as a "de facto referendum" on independence.
The incumbent SNP leader said that the next Westminster vote should be treated as a gauge for independence after her plans to hold a referendum later this year without the consent of No10 were ruled illegal.
Yousaf said last month he was "not wedded" to the plans and wanted to instead focus on making support for independence a "sustainable majority" view.
Forbes said there was little point in using the next election as a de facto independence vote because there was not enough support.
"We need to be on the front foot in preparing the ground and making the case for independence," she told the Sunday Post.
"I would like that to be sooner rather than later, but I also want it to be at the point when a majority of people can see that independence is the answer on these issues, and we're not there yet."
And Regan has said the party should focus on making the case for independence so that there is such a large majority in favour that the UK Government has no choice but to grant independence.
Yesterday the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Labour mocked the SNP's internal divides.
Nicola Sturgeon rejected the criticism from the Scottish Tories and Labour
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“This contest is an absolute bin fire,” said Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader at First Minister's Questions.
“The SNP is so split and divided that they even wanted to ban the media from hustings.”
Labour's Anas Sarwar told Sturgeon all three candidates were "trashing her record" and were "falling over themselves to distance themselves from the Scottish government’s flawed policies".
Sturgeon rejected the criticism and said both Labour and the Conservatives had experienced significant internal divisions in recent years.
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