Goodbye to Scotland's answer to Liz Truss: How Sturgeon's short

Release time：2024-05-21 11:23:22 Source：International Identities news portal

Humza Yousaf bowed out as SNP leader today after fewer than 400 crisis and gaffe-filled days in charge of the country.

The anointed heir to Nicola Sturgeon took power after a fractious leadership campaign in 2023 that almost split the Scottish Nationalist Party in the wake of her shock resignation. 

But Mr Yousaf, who had already built up a back catalogue of controversies when in her Cabinet - including committing a driving offence when Transport Secretary - showed non of the staying power of his mentor.

He took over at the age of 37 he became the youngest FM ever and the first Muslim.  But like fellow Scot David Moyes replacing Sir Alex Ferguson as manager of Manchester United in 2013, he inherited huge boots he could not fill, and an organisation creaking behind the scenes.

His job was made worse just weeks into his job with the arrest of Ms Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell.   

But he also created huge difficulties for himself. He made wild claims about gaining independence, a decade after the 2014 referendum.  And he tried to introduce a new gender recognition law that would make it easier for teens to officially alter their sex, just months before a major medical review led to the pausing of medication for children.

In the end it was trans rights and environmental policy that did for him. He kicked the SNP's coalition partners the Greens out of government, before the junior party could vote to end the co-operation agreement itself.

But he failed to see that this might make them a little angry, and naively voiced hopes they could continue to work together, hours before they agreed to vote to oust him. 

Humza Yousaf bowed out as First Minister of Scotland today after fewer than 400 crisis and gaffe-filled days in charge of the country.

Moment Mr Yousaf crashed a mobility scooter in Holyrood in 2021

Delivering a speech to supporters in Glasgow following a march in support of Scottish independence earlier this month.

But like fellow Scot David Moyes replacing Sir Alex Ferguson as manager of Manchester United in 2013, he inherited huge boots he could not fill, and an organisation creaking behind the scenes.

Mr Yousaf worked for Ms Sturgeon before becoming an MSP in 2011. He  took his oath to the Queen in English and in Urdu.

He did the same when re-elected in 2016, wearing both a kilt and sherwani to reflect his Scottish and Pakistani heritage.

His father, who is from Pakistan, and his mother, from Kenya, moved to the UK in the 1960s.

His first ministerial appointment came under Alex Salmond's leadership in September 2012, when he became minister for external affairs and international development.

He stayed on in a junior ministerial role when Ms Sturgeon became First Minister, though he was then promoted to the transport portfolio and later justice.

Driving offence while Transport Secretary 

He made his first headlines at Transport in 2016, when police caught him driving without insurance, and handed him six points and a £300 fine.

He blamed the 'genuine mistake' on a misunderstanding following his recent break-up with his now ex-wife Gail.

The SNP minister was driving a friend's car on the way to a St Andrew's Night dinner, when cops stopped him on the road between Ullapool and Inverness for a routine check.

He admitted driving without insurance and pleaded guilty in court in early 2017.

He said he thought he had comprehensive car insurance that allowed him to driver other vehicles, but he discovered that after the split from his wife and transfer of ownership of the couple's car, he was no longer the main policy holder and was subsequently no longer insured to drive other vehicles.

NHS crisis when Health Secretary 

Perhaps his greatest challenge came when he was promoted to Health Secretary, taking over the post from Jeane Freeman in 2021 as she stood down from Holyrood.

The coronavirus pandemic was still affecting Scotland at that point and he revealed that the first call he received after being made Health Secretary was from his mother, who was keen to find out what job he had been given in the Cabinet reshuffle.

Upon being told he had been given the health portfolio, she said: 'What have you done to annoy Nicola?'

Throughout his time in the role, he has faced opposition attacks over the performance of the NHS, particularly over A&E waiting times.

These reached a nadir in December 2022, when performance against the four-hour target for admission, transfer or discharge fell to just 62 per cent.

He also managed to squeeze in another headline-grabbing gaffe - when he crashed a medical scooter. 

Scooter crash moan 

He was unimpressed when a BBC journalist tweeted a video of him falling off a knee scooter while racing down a corridor at Holyrood Parliament.

He moaned that he wasn't sure there was a 'need or purpose' for the short clip to be shared by Glenn Campbell after it began receiving thousands of 'likes' on Twitter.

The nine-second video shows Mr Yousaf - who was recovering from a ruptured achilles - travelling at quite some speed with his right knee being held up by the specialist device.

He could be seen repeatedly pushing his left leg off the floor, picking up speed before he suddenly slips, causing the vehicle to swerve out of control. 

Mr Yousaf is thrown face first to the ground as an assistant carrying his crutches rushes to his aid. 

The Health Secretary tweeted: 'All for media scrutiny and never shy away from it. 

'Just not sure there is need or purpose to tweet out a video of me falling over while injured. 

'If anyone else had fallen over while on crutches, a knee scooter, or in a wheelchair would your first instinct be to film it & tweet out?' 

Leadership race nearly splits the party 

But Mr Yousaf stood by Ms Sturgeon throughout his time as a minister and MSP and was rewarded with her backing when he stood to replace her in early 2023. 

 Mr Yousaf announced his plans to stand in the same Sunday newspaper as rival Ash Regan - now the Alba MSP who holds the deciding vote in the confidence vote against him 

In hustings and TV debates, Mr Yousaf was repeatedly challenged for being the 'continuity candidate' – a label he simultaneously shunned and embraced.

He told audiences he would be his 'own man' as first minister, but added that continuing the election success of Nicola Sturgeon would not be a negative.

He also regularly took veiled swipes at his rivals by stressing the need to continue the party's 'progressive agenda'.

Mr Yousaf's campaign, however, was not without challenge, with the early part taken up by questions over his vote on equal marriage in 2014, with former first minister Alex Salmond and former health secretary Alex Neil claiming he had been excused from the stage three vote over religious pressures – accusations Mr Yousaf has continuously denied.

His campaign for leader was also punctuated by testy exchanges with his fellow candidates, most notably during the first televised debate when Kate Forbes hit out at his record in government.

'Where are the Ukrainian men?'

Again, there was a gaffe, when on the campaign trail he was branded 'embarrassing' and 'out of his depth' over comments to female Ukrainian refugees.

Humza Yousaf asked the group why no men had escaped from the warzone with them after they posed for photos in Edinburgh during his campaign to replace Nicola Sturgeon. 

Ukrainian men who are of military age are largely forbidden to leave the country as the war with Russia continues. This means that the majority of the displaced Ukrainians arriving elsewhere in Europe are women, children or the elderly.

Mr Yousaf told the BBC a number of Ukrainian men were elsewhere in the building when he made the remark. He said in an interview later: 'They of course were rightly saying to me that for many of them their families are not able to make it, not all of their families are able to make it. I don't think any of the women were at all offended or upset.'

Humza Yousaf asked the group why no men had escaped from the warzone with them after they posed for photos in Edinburgh during his campaign to replace Nicola Sturgeon.

But opposition parties tore into the gaffe this afternoon, with Scottish Labour's deputy leader Jackie Baillie saying: 'This is further evidence that Humza Yousef is out of his depth. This is embarrassing.'

The Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton added: 'From the man who would lead Scotland, this is clumsy and insensitive. 

'Many of these women could have male relatives fighting and dying on the Eastern front, defending not just Ukraine but the free democracies of our world. A worrying lack of awareness on display here.'

After the fractious campaign he narrowly won the party leadership, with Kate Forbes second. 

But he struggled to get anything of note done during his tenure, amid declining support for the SNP in the polls. 

Gender law humiliation 

Perhaps his biggest humiliation came in December when the Scottish Government lost its fight to introduce a controversial trans law after a court ruled that Westminster had the power to overrule Holyrood.

The SNP administration brought the case at the Court of Session after Scotland Secretary Alister Jack vetoed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which had been passed by the SNP-led Scottish Parliament.

The legislation simplifies the process for transgender people to obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC) and officially change their legally-recognised sex.

The law would have allowed teens to legally change gender from the age of 16. UK laws require people to be 18 to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Mr Yousaf launched the judicial review shortly after he became First Minister, but judges ruled that Mr Jack acted lawfully when he invoked Section 35 of the Scotland Act – brought in when the devolved Scottish Parliament was created.

The issue was to come back and bite him this month and play a more direct role in his downfall.

Earlier in April Scotland's gender clinic 'paused' the prescribing of puberty blockers after 'days of shameful silence and dithering' from the Scottish Government.

The Sandyford clinic in Glasgow said no prescriptions would be issued to new patients and under-18s would not get other gender hormone treatments.

The U-turn came after a review of gender services for children in England found there was 'not enough evidence' puberty ­blockers are safe or effective.

The findings by Dr Hilary Cass piled ­pressure on the NHS in Scotland to scrap the controversial practice of giving such drugs to gender-questioning children.

But it infuriated the pro-trans Greens, who wanted Mr Yousaf to reverse the decision. 

Along with last week's watering down of Net Zero targets - removing plans to meet some goals by 2030 to focus on achieving the main target in 2045 - it was one of the triggers for the prospective Green vote to end the co-operation agreement. 

'Obsessed with independence' 

In January Mr Yousaf was accused of 'obsessing' over Scottish independence at the expense of problems facing its people.

In a speech the First Minister vowed to continue for Scotland to leave the UK and rejoin the EU 'regardless' of how the party does at the next general election.

He launched the SNP's general election campaign by targeting all Conservative seats in Scotland, saying winning the majority of seats would give 'democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent country'.

But opinion polls suggest he will lose seats and the SNP may lose its crown as Scotland's largest party at Westminster.

At the last general election, the SNP won 48 out of 59 Scottish seats. But polling analysts have said it faces a challenge from Labour north of the border. In October the pro-independence party lost a by-election race in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, with Labour overturning a previous SNP majority of more than 5,000.

Row over hate crime law 

He was also under pressure over a new hate crime law he guided through Holyrood, which has come into effect.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act was passed by MSPs in 2021, consolidating existing hate crime legislation and creating a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics, although sex has been omitted in favour of a standalone Bill designed to tackle misogyny.

A stirring up offence on the basis of race has been on the statute book in Scotland since 1986.

But the legislation has raised concerns about a potential chilling of free speech.

Prominent critics include author JK Rowling, podcaster Joe Rogan and Elon Musk, the owner of X – formerly Twitter.

Prominent critics include author JK Rowling, podcaster Joe Rogan and Elon Musk, the owner of X – formerly Twitter.

The Act has also raised the ire of policing bodies, with the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) claiming training for officers is not enough and the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS) raising concerns about the legislation being weaponised for political purposes.

ASPS warned vexatious complaints could be made against people based on their views by political opponents.

In a letter to Holyrood's Justice Committee, they said the law could be 'weaponised' by an 'activist fringe' across the political spectrum.

But on Friday, First Minister Humza Yousaf told the PA news agency: 'I would say to anybody who thinks they are a victim of hatred, we take that seriously, if you felt you are a victim of hatred, then of course reporting that to police is the right thing to do.

'If you're thinking about making a a vexatious complaint, if you're thinking about making a complaint and there's no merit in that, then do know that the police will take that serious in terms of tackling vexatious complaints and so I would urge you not to do it.'

The First Minister has repeatedly said there is 'disinformation' being spread about the Bill and what it entails, claiming there is a 'triple lock' of protection for speech.

This includes an explicit clause, a defence for the accused's behaviour being 'reasonable' and that the Act is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr Yousaf also told journalists on Friday that the legislation would not go the way of other high-profile legislative U-turns under the SNP, such as the named persons scheme and the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.

The legislation, which he shepherded through Holyrood as former first minister Nicola Sturgeon's justice secretary, 'got the right balance' between protections against hate crime and freedom of speech, he said.

But critics, many of whom, including the Harry Potter author, hold gender critical views, have said it would be weaponised against them.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry has previously said being under police investigation could be a punishment in itself.

Related articles