This episode is sponsored by Lloyd's Banking Group, serving Britain's communities and households for more than 250 years.

Hello and welcome to Women of Balls, where I, Katie Balls, speak to today's trailblazers.

My guest today has been described in some quarters as the golden girl of

Scottish politics who can do no wrong, and in others the Iron Lassie. She was born in the

Highlands but spent much of her childhood in India where her father provided healthcare. However,

even from far away, she was tipped for a politics career in Scotland, who have a teacher

suggesting she was destined to debate in Parliament.

She got involved with the SMP in her late teens and was elected the MSP for Sky,

LeCava and Badenock since 2016. A rising star, she was promoted even faster than her supporters

anticipated when Finance Secretary Derek McKay was suspended from the party on the day of the budget.

She stepped in at last minute and delivered it, becoming the first woman to deliver a budget in the Scottish Parliament.

That performance clearly impressed, and she was soon appointed as the new finance secretary.

My guest today is Kate Forbes.

I think you might cringe slightly when I quoted the new statesman about you.

Oh, the golden girl. It's like quite romworthy, isn't it? We can get to that. Well, thank you

very much for joining me today, Kate. As is always the case with coronavirus, we are not in the same

room. You're joining me from... I'm joining you from just outside in Brinesse, so just outside from home.

Now clearly coronavirus dominates a lot of the news agenda right now, your daily job.

But on this podcast, we like to begin by looking back to your early life before you were in politics.

So we are going to stick with the traditional format for now, but we will of course get onto coronavirus

by the end of the podcast. As I mentioned in the introduction, you spent a lot of your child in India.

A question I often ask guests on this podcast is, would you describe your childhood as a happy one?

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