Humza Yousaf has won the race to become the next leader of the Scottish National party. Yousaf defeated his rival Kate Forbes by 52 per cent to 48 per cent after Ash Regan was eliminated in the first round of voting.
Yousaf has been the SNP establishment’s preferred candidate from the outset; he received the backing of senior party politicians, including Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and outgoing deputy first minister John Swinney. While Yousaf is Sturgeon’s continuity candidate, the former health secretary has a lot of work to do to convince the people of Scotland he is up to the job. The margin of his victory was much narrower than anticipated: his victory over Forbes in both the first and second round of voting was by only a few thousand votes.
The last five weeks have been somewhat disastrous for the SNP.
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