Former Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said she dodged a bullet or “something even more explosive” by losing the SNP leadership election.

Ms Forbes’ narrow defeat in the poll held at the end of March led to some speculation that she would mount a new campaign.

But after seeing the party implode over a series of scandals and internal disputes, Ms Forbes, who last year gave birth to her first child, has said she has no desire to stand for the leadership again, at least in the short term.

Mr Yousaf’s time in office has been dominated by the fallout from the police investigation into the SNP’s finances and bitter in-fighting which this week led to the expulsion of Angus MacNeil MP.

The party faces a struggle to take back the Hamilton and Rutherglen seat after Margaret Ferrier, a former SNP MP who latterly sat as an independent, was forced out for breaching Covid rules.

During an interview at the Edinburgh Fringe, Ms Forbes was asked if she felt she had “dodged a bullet”.

She said: “I think that it has been enormously difficult, and I think – not just dodged a bullet, but perhaps something even more explosive than that.”

Ms Forbes said she was “highly, highly unlikely” to run for the party leadership again, but did not rule it out entirely. She said: “At the moment, I absolutely stand by what I’ve said, which is I have no desire to re-run.”

She said the decision to expel Mr MacNeil from the SNP will do the party “zero favours” when it comes to retaining the seat at the next general election.

Ms Forbes also backed re-negotiating the co-operation agreement between the SNP and the Greens in Holyrood.

“I would want a debate about the substance of the Bute House Agreement,” she said. “I would want to look at whether or not we are meeting the needs and the priorities of the people at this moment in time.”

She added: “I think that co-operation matters. I think co-operation with the Greens is helpful if the substance of the agreement serves people.

“I could give you a list of things I don’t think are serving people right now, some of which has already changed, like banning fishing, dualling the A9, gas boilers, and so on. And I would like a discussion about that.”