Well, well, well. It now transpires that hapless Humza Yousaf will step down as an MSP at the next Holyrood election, with the former first minister of Scotland making the announcement this morning. It comes after Yousaf spent a year in the top job before being ousted in April this year when he rather abruptly cut off his eco-activist coalition partners. Dear oh dear…
Posting his letter to John Swinney on Twitter, Yousaf wrote that being Scotland’s first minister had been ‘the greatest honour’ of his life, going on about his time in the Scottish government:
In government, I was proud to have significantly increased our budget for active travel, laid the groundwork for taking Scotrail back into public ownership and overseen the completion of the Queensferry crossing. I brought forward greater protections for domestic abuse survivors, minorities and victims, and agreed to pardon miners who were convicted during the 1984 Miners’ Strikes. I was pleased to oversee record NHS investment, our leading vaccination programme during Covid, and ensure Scotland was the only nation in the UK to avoid NHS strikes as a result of negotiating a fair pay deal with NHS staff.
The ex-FM added:
As well as important domestic matters, I have always believed that Scotland should be a good global citizen, contributing to help solve the biggest challenges humanity faces, as well as standing in solidarity with those suffering grave injustices across the world. As First Minister, I hope I was able to demonstrate leadership during, what I view as the moral question of our time, the ongoing atrocities and war crimes being committed in Gaza.
Will Yousaf’s predecessor now announce whether she plans to step down too? Nicola Sturgeon has had quite an eventful 18 months and all eyes are now on what the SNP’s Dear Leader proposes to do next. Stay tuned…
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