Humza Yousaf emerges on top in first SNP hustings

The first SNP leadership hustings was neatly summed up by the first question asked: ‘What will the candidates do to counter the misinformation, lies and antipathy aimed at our party on a daily basis by journalists based in Scotland?’

There was no mistaking that this was an SNP event. No political party likes the news media but Scottish nationalists are almost as much defined by their boundless, visceral hatred of journalists as they are by their ardour for independence. It wasn’t the only question to raise an eyebrow in Cumbernauld last night. Another member asked the candidates:

‘Would you be prepared to invoke our claim of right to self-determination under the international law at the UN on a 50 per cent plus one vote?’

None of the three candidates disavowed the premise of the first question. That only one, Ash Regan, clearly and unequivocally disagreed with the proposal contained in the second is a reminder that the process for choosing Scotland’s next First Minister is in the hands of committed, and perhaps committable, ideologues. (The notion of calling in the UN for help against Westminster is not new. For more, the papers of the Scotland-UN pressure group are worth a read.) 

Other questions were more grounded. Childcare, the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, banning prayer vigils near abortion clinics, empowering local government, and, inevitably, whether religious people have a place in frontline politics. According to my clap-o-meter, Humza Yousaf drew the most applause from the audience of party members. He was noticeably relaxed, perhaps because the west of Scotland is his territory.

Yousaf connects especially well with those from working- and lower-middle class backgrounds who broke with generations of family tradition to vote SNP in 2015 and since. Cumbernauld lies in North Lanarkshire, one of the four council areas that voted Yes to independence in 2014. (Yousaf’s own constituency is Glasgow Pollok, though he lives in Broughty Ferry, a well-to-do suburb of Dundee.)

With the hustings hosted by the SNP itself, and party president Mike Russell relaying audience questions, party establishment favourite Yousaf faced none of the scrutiny from journalists that can sometimes cause him problems. He was able to answer on his own terms and even cracked jokes with the audience. He is every bit the machine politician that Nicola Sturgeon is; he just does a better impression of a human being. 

By contrast, his main rival Kate Forbes was at times stilted, even sounding like a politician in her too-practised, too-precise answers. This is odd because one of Forbes’ strengths is that she actually is a human being and sounds like it. Now and then the more natural, more Highland, Forbes broke through. Perhaps that was the trouble: Lanarkshire is very much an away ground for her. There are a dozen(!) more hustings to go and she may well loosen up as the race goes on. 

Last night confirmed early impressions of the three candidates and their roles in the campaign. Yousaf is the continuity candidate, a progressive in the Sturgeon vein who will keep the party centre-left in rhetoric, triangulating on social and economic policy, and abreast of the latest advances in identity politics. 

Forbes is the change candidate. She’s a fiscal moderate and social conservative who would shift the party away from divisive issues like gender identity and focus on improving public services and expanding support for independence beyond the party’s comfort zones. 

Regan is the wild card candidate. One minute she’s proposing bonkers currency solutions and a de facto neverendum, both barely concealed panders to the grassroots, then in the next minute, taking positions anathema to many members. Last night, for example, she reiterated her refusal to challenge the UK government’s Section 35 order blocking the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in court, adding that it would also be a waste of public money. Regan can’t be the favourite of the grassroots while being the straight-talking candidate.

If I had to call a winner for the first hustings, I would give it to Humza Yousaf. Forbes has a better grip on policy and a superior record on implementation but, as a matter of the all-important vibes, Yousaf was more laidback, more likeable and more authentic. He connected with the audience and, for good or for ill, they are the electorate in this race.