It seems that Kate Forbes’ stance on same-sex marriage hasn’t gone down too well with some of her more socially liberal backers. Within 24 hours of announcing her candidacy, the Finance Secretary’s campaign has actually gone backwards, managing to lose four MSPs following an interview in which she said that she would not have supported gay marriage as a ‘matter of conscience.’  That was enough for some of her SNP colleagues at Holyrood. One by one they trooped out on Twitter to deliver their lines of condemnation:

1. Richard Lochhead MSP – ‘I welcomed my colleague Kate Forbes’ decision to join the SNP leadership contest given her talents & felt it would give us a real contest: new ideas and a new approach that we desperately need. However, I agree we can’t have a Party Leader who’d vote against same sex marriage.’
2. Gillian Martin MSP – ‘We must be full throated in our support of equal marriage. No if or buts. I won’t be supporting Kate’s campaign on that basis. I wish her well- she’s extremely talented. But I have red lines. And this is one.’
3. Tom Arthur MSP – ‘Equal marriage is amongst our Parliament’s greatest achievements and one that I would have been proud to vote for had I been an MSP when it was passed. Consequently, I am unable to continue to support Kate’s campaign.’
4. Clare Haughey MSP – ‘I absolutely and completely support equal marriage. I am unequivocal on this issue. I cannot continue to support Kate’s leadership campaign.’

As if that wasn’t enough, the candidate herself had to endure a gruelling morning media round today. On Times Radio, she was forced to dance around the question of whether gay sex is a sin, questioning the premise of the question as ‘fundamentally wrong’ because it’s ‘a theological question’ and ‘sin is universal’.

Meanwhile Radio 4’s Today programme chose to ask her seven questions, of which five were about same-sex marriage. She chose to double down, asking whether ‘Are we saying high office is barred to people of faith?’ but that she accepts the legality of gay marriage because she is a ‘servant of democracy.’

Unless it comes to accepting the 2014 referendum result…