As expected, Humza Yousaf has won the SNP leadership election and, barring something extraordinary, will become the next First Minister of Scotland. Yousaf may have been the bookies’ choice but that’s about as far as the favourability extends. Yousaf had a -20 rating with the general public of Scotland and only +11 with his own party (just 33 per cent of the party’s 72,000 members voted for him).
Yousaf is widely regarded as incompetent, gaffe prone, and charmless. His much-tweeted speech on the ‘whiteness’ of Scottish society, which seemed designed to annoy the 96 per cent of Scots who are Caucasian, is one of the most controversial in the inglorious history of the Scottish parliament. It will haunt him, as will his monumentally insensitive question to a group of Ukrainian women during the campaign (‘Where are all the men?’).
Yousaf has promised to keep Sturgeon on speed dial
He so struggled to find any tangible achievements to boast of during the leadership hustings that he was reduced to claiming credit for the Queensferry Crossing, a project which was almost completed before he became transport minister (his only contribution seems to have been a six-month delay at the tail end of the process). As health minister, he is widely regarded as having been a total failure. For many, the highlight of his parliamentary career to date, and the highlight of his showreel of shame, is when he tumbled off a scooter while whizzing around the building.
Yousaf has no extra-political skills that anyone is aware of as he had no career before entering politics. Even Nicola Sturgeon was briefly a, sort of, lawyer and Mark Drakeford an academic. His nickname ‘Humza Useless’ may be unkind but given his remarkably achievement-free record such barbs seem inevitable. To top it all off he comes from a privileged background: Yousaf went to the elite fee-paying Hutchesons’ grammar school in Glasgow. His claims of plans to tax the rich to help the poor will sound especially hollow.
Does Yousaf himself believe he is up to the task? He has declared himself his predecessor’s inferior and promised to keep Sturgeon on speed dial to guide him through the challenges ahead – which suggests the outgoing First Minister may hope to be a back and front seat driver in the next phase of her life (she’s just started driving lessons).
But perhaps the most interesting reactions and a good guide to the way ahead came from the two losing candidates. Kate Forbes seemed unconcerned. She looks likely to have a place in Yousaf’s cabinet and can maintain some distance from the expected fall out from the end of the Sturgeon regime. She will get sympathy for putting up with the lion’s share of the personal abuse and coming so close in what many saw as an uneven contest. Her time may well come.
As for Ash Regan, rarely has anyone failed so spectacularly in disguising their inner feelings on missing out on a job or an award. Her face told its own story and she could barely look at the winner during the perfunctory congratulatory handshake. As the most strident about what needed to be done to achieve independence and the candidate who expressed the strongest misgivings about the previous regime and about how the contest was run, what she does now could be pivotal to the future of the movement.
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