Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Humza Yousaf emerges on top in first SNP hustings

Humza Yousaf at the SNP's first hustings event (Credit: Getty images)

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:

Yousaf is every bit the machine politician that Sturgeon is; he just does a better impression of a human being

‘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.

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