KATE Forbes has said she may have won the SNP leadership contest if she had decided to keep quiet on her religious views.

The MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, who is a member of the evangelical Free Church of Scotland, was defeated by 52% to 48% by Humza Yousaf in the second round of voting after Ash Regan came third in the first round of the SNP members' ballot.

Ms Forbes' campaign got off to a disastrous start after she said she would have voted against gay marriage had she been an MSP when the vote came to Holyrood in 2014.

In further interviews she said she believed having children outside of marriage would be "wrong" for her personally according to her faith and would be something she would "seek to avoid".

In a podcast, released today, with fellow Christian Tim Farron, the former Lib Dem leader, Ms Forbes was asked would have happened if she kept quiet on the ‘God stuff’.

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She replied: “Maybe I would have won, but would then have fallen quite quickly because of these issues emerging. I think people admired and respected honesty.”

She defended her decision to talk about her moral beliefs related to her religious outlook when she joined the leadership campaign during her maternity leave saying “people are crying out for honesty, truthfulness, integrity from their politicians". 

She said: "So I went straight into the fiery furnace of a leadership contest, and I knew that the first questions would be about my faith…I had a choice as to whether to just tell the truth or to prevaricate. It certainly stuck me as being the wise thing to do.”

Asked by Mr Farron about the first week of the contest, she said: “It was touch and go as to whether I would be given the chance to start talking about the economy, about social issues that weren't just those hot moral issues. And so it took quite a lot of effort to push it onto other issues.”

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Speaking on the impact the contest had on her family she said: “I don't think there's any two ways about it, when you're in the eye of the storm there are ripple effects. I have stepdaughters who had to go into school. 

"I have a husband who was meeting a lot of clients and customers on a daily basis. I was particularly worried about the reception that they might get because, you know, school pupils- not always the most forgiving.”

She added that voters in her own Highland constituency were supportive of her during the campaign.

“I had this sense that even though I was perhaps not particularly well-liked in the public domain, my local people were right behind me, and my family experienced that as well. And that's really encouraging," she said.

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But she said she felt "hurt" when she believed people began to treat her differently because of her religious and moral opinions. “When people start to treat you in a different way because of your views, it hurts. And that was painful, particularly people that I'd worked with for many years," she said.

"What was really interesting during the leadership contest is I think those fault lines disappeared, and there was so much uniting both Christians and people without faith along principles like freedom of speech, freedom of political view, freedom of conscience.”

She advised other Christians entering into politics not to hide their faith.

“I think they need to be very honest with themselves. And with all the many parts of the infrastructure of politics. I think it is very risky to hide their faith," she said.

"And I think there's too often the risk that people think if I keep quiet at the beginning, then I'll get into a position of responsibility and then I'll be able to change everything. 

"But I think that if you don't learn how to explain yourself and defend yourself in some of the small spheres, then it's almost impossible in the bigger sphere.. Don’t be fearful, there is nothing to fear that at the end of the day, if you want to be in politics, go for it, but do not let fear characterise everything you do.”

Following the backlash to her views from within her party and from members of the public, Ms Forbes said she was "greatly burdened" that some of her views had caused hurt.

Her campaign subsequently recovered when the discussion began to focus on issues such as tackling poverty by growing the economy and she raised concerns over a number of Scottish Government policies and how they could damage business.

She spoke out about the deposit return scheme, plans for a ban on alcohol advertising and plans to extend marine conservation areas off the Scottish coast limiting fishing further. All three policies have since been shelved by the First Minister.