After being elected leader of the SNP, Humza Yousaf was formally elected Prime Minister by the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday. He then has to be sworn in before the Scottish Supreme Court.
The British newspaper The Guardian describes him as Nicola Sturgeon’s “unacknowledged favorite successor”. The latter handed over her place as Scottish Prime Minister on Tuesday 28 March to Humza Yousaf, who had been elected the new leader of the Scottish Independence Party (SNP) the previous day. A passionate pro-independence supporter, Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first ethnic minority leader, must accept the challenge of succeeding his former boss who ruled for eight years and making a name for himself on the left.
He is elected First Minister of Scotland.
Humza Yousaf, who led the SNP aged 37 on Monday, was formally elected Prime Minister of Scotland by local Parliament on Tuesday. He must then be formally appointed to the position by Royal Warrant and sworn in before the Court of Session, Scotland’s highest court, on Wednesday. Humza Yousaf will be catapulted to the top of the country after an internal vote sparked by the surprise resignation of Nicola Sturgeon last month after eight years in office.
Humza Yousaf won against Treasury Secretary Kate Forbes, who took conservative positions, and Ash Regan, a former member of local government. No candidate who received more than 50% of the votes in this poll, in which voters rank candidates by preference, won the election at the second count, receiving 52.1% of the votes. Until then Minister of Health, previously he was responsible for various ministerial departments such as justice and transport.
He is close to Nicola Sturgeon
Born in Glasgow, Humza Yousaf attended private school and then studied political science at the university of his birthplace. He worked in a call center before becoming an assistant to Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon’s predecessor as head of the SNP. Very close to the latter, he is considered a continuity candidate. The new leader of the Independence Party has “the same progressive agenda” as his predecessor and “promises to defend his gender recognition reform bill (allowing gender reassignment from the age of 16) against a veto by the British Parliament,” notes Cécile Ducourtieux , Correspondent for Le Monde (Payments) in the UK.
Humza Yousaf will have to prove his ability to turn a new page in the party’s history at a time when the struggle for independence seems to have stalled, reigniting divisions within the SNP and whetting the appetites of the opposition to a year and a half stimulate half of the next local elections.
So the task doesn’t look easy. “Within her party, the outgoing Prime Minister has undeniably left a void,” stresses Courrier International (paid article), citing British newspaper The Times and Scottish daily The Herald. “None of the candidates seemed able to impose their authority on the party,” claims the Times, which sees the real winners of the London election among pro-United Kingdom advocates. “We rub our hands there because we also consider Humza Yousaf a blunder linked to the failures of Nicola Sturgeon,” adds the Herald.
He is a supporter of Scottish independence
After his election as leader of the SNP on Monday, Humza Yousaf pledged to be part of “the generation that will achieve independence” and stressed that “the people” of Scotland “need independence now more than ever”. Enough to make London react violently. Downing Street countered that Scots want healthcare leaders “focused on the issues that matter most to them: bringing down inflation, dealing with the cost of living crisis and reducing waiting lists”.
After the 55% ‘No’ victory in the 2014 referendum, the independence debate was revived by leaving the European Union, which 62% of Scots opposed, in contrast to the rest of the UK. But support for independence, at the heart of the SNP’s program, is currently stagnant in public opinion. According to a March 13 YouGov poll for Sky News, 46% of Scots polled are pro-independence (up from 50% in February). Including the undecided, the proportion drops to 39%.
On this issue, Humza Yousaf pledged on Monday to launch a people’s movement for self-determination. And this despite the fact that the UK Supreme Court ruled last year that it was impossible to organize a new referendum without the consent of London, which is strongly opposed to such a vote.
He is the first racialized person to hold the office of Prime Minister in Scotland.
Humza Yousaf is of Pakistani and Indian descent and the first Muslim leader of a major political party in the United Kingdom. When he was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2011, he was sworn in in both English and Urdu. After his victory on Monday, he paid tribute to his paternal grandparents, who came from Pakistan 60 years ago. “They could never have imagined in their wildest dreams that one day their grandson would become the next First Minister of Scotland.” “It reminds us that we (…) should always celebrate immigrants who contribute so much to our country,” he added, in a thinly veiled jab at the UK government’s desire to tighten asylum conditions.
In her final appearance in Parliament as Prime Minister last week, Nicola Sturgeon called for unity, noting that her successor would be either the second woman Prime Minister or the first woman leader from an ethnic minority. “It doesn’t matter what the result is [du vote]it will send a very strong message that every young person in Scotland can aspire to the highest office in the country,” she said.
Regarding his beginnings in politics, Humza Yousaf recounted racist attacks and statements, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks.” he said. He assures that his experience will lead him to defend the rights of all minorities, including the rights of gay and transgender people.