Humza Yousaf’s debut FMQs descends into chaos

Humza Yousaf’s debut at First Minister’s Questions was never going to be straightforward. The First Minister’s questionable track record in government offered, to use his own words, an ‘open goal’ to his opposition. Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar was quick to point to Yousaf’s ‘incompetence’, while Scottish Conservative’s Douglas Ross belittled the new cabinet. But what made Yousaf’s FMQs debut even more chaotic were seven serial interruptions by climate activists.

When the protests eventually stopped – after the public gallery was, in an unprecedented move, cleared bar two groups of schoolchildren – the attacks against Yousaf continued while today’s guest, the ambassador to Iceland, looked on. Riding the wave of SNP division, Ross used Yousaf’s own words against him. Quoting former business minister Ivan McKee, who, like Kate Forbes recently resigned from government, and former MSP Alex Neil, one of Forbes’s backers, Ross criticised the lack of business acumen in Yousaf’s new cabinet, before slamming his ‘divisive’ opponent.

‘If Humza Yousaf can’t even unite his own party, how can he unite the country?’ Ross jeered. Yousaf made a jibe at Liz Truss’s tax cuts but seemed to get confused on his plans for the economy. ‘I am building upon our legacy where we have higher unemployment, lower unemployment,’ he said. It was, albeit, a relatively minor gaffe in the scheme of Yousaf’s history.

Sarwar also chose to focus on the First Minister’s track record. During Yousaf’s time as health secretary, over 11,000 children were left waiting longer than the 18-week standard for treatment. Describing the story of one child – who had been waiting longer than the entire time Yousaf had been health secretary to receive treatment – the Scottish Labour leader asked if the First Minister would ‘take this opportunity to offer an apology to the children and families he let down as health secretary’. 

Yousaf did apologise, and made the announcement that the Scottish government would be investing £19 billion in the health service in the 2023/24 period. The SNP, Yousaf insisted, would also make sure that ‘our NHS staff are the best paid per year than anywhere else in the UK’, and he pointed out that ‘we have never lost a single day this winter to strike action’. What Yousaf failed to mention is that junior doctors in Scotland are being balloted for strike action. He has already said during his campaign that he will not give medics the pay rise they want. Given 98 per cent of all doctors who voted in England’s ballot were in favour of industrial action, Yousaf’s statement on striking workers looks unlikely to hold much longer.

There was a lot of deflection from the First Minister in today’s FMQs. Yousaf repeatedly blamed Scotland’s lack of independence for the problems facing the government, and the Covid pandemic also provided a handy excuse for the First Minister when forced to defend his record in health.

As the session went on, Yousaf appeared to grow more irritable. He dismissed Conservative MSP Jeremy Balfour’s question about how many of his constituents have not yet received the Scottish Child Payment as crying ‘crocodile tears’. He looked rattled as Labour’s Pam Duncan-Glancy pressed him on why he had no cabinet secretary for social security, nodding to the absence of Ben MacPherson from government. ‘Social security is being led by the cabinet secretary – she’s sitting right there, she’s waving right at you!’ he cried back, gesturing towards his social justice secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville. 

In general, though, the First Minister’s responses felt rather flat. As one hack remarked under his breath, in reference to Nicola Sturgeon: ‘How stale it sounds when it’s someone else saying it…’ For all that Yousaf likes to perform, and can be camera-friendly when he wants, his answers today fell short. His go-to response of blaming the Westminster government for just about everything became repetitive, and yet there were strikingly few solutions to Scotland’s problems. As his opponents highlighted, it will be hard for the Scottish people to trust Yousaf given his own chequered time in government, particularly on health – regardless of this £19 billion investment. Not to mention the First Minister still needs to weather the storm that Forbes’s resignation will inevitably bring. Interestingly, neither Forbes nor his fellow leadership rival Ash Regan were present today.

The protesters weren’t welcomed by anyone, and the fact that one of those thrown out today, retired army officer Mike Roswell, was removed from the Chamber only three weeks ago raises serious questions about how the parliament gets to grips with disruptive activists. But they did make an otherwise dry First Minister’s Questions a little more entertaining.