The apparently irresistible rise of Humza Yousaf, the SNP politician seen as the frontrunner to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland’s first minister, reveals much about the dearth of talent at the very top of Scottish politics. Yousaf is a politician with almost no discernible achievements to his name despite almost a decade in senior ministerial roles. If truth be told — cruel as it may sound — many will consider Yousaf a serial political incompetent who has made a name for himself in Scottish politics for all the wrong reasons.
Even so, Yousaf certainly takes himself seriously enough. There he was on Monday launching his leadership campaign in Clydebank, a former shipbuilding town west of Glasgow. This is where his grandfather had his first job at the nearby Singer sewing machine factory after emigrating to Scotland in 1962.
Yousaf declared that his candidacy to become first minister was proof of Scotland’s inclusive, diverse ethos. A more credible explanation is that it is proof that the SNP is bereft of political heavyweights. His grandfather, Yousaf went on, ‘couldn’t have imagined, not in his wildest dreams, that his grandson would be running to be first minister of Scotland,’ he declared. Fair enough. Yet what he went on to say stretches credulity: ‘I believe I have the necessary skills to bridge divides’. It is an estimation of his talents that few rational political observers would share.
He landed his first big job in 2012 as minister for external affairs and international development. It is hard to think of one memorable thing he achieved in that role, but perhaps that can be put down to his inexperience.
It was in the transport brief, handed to him in 2016, that his innate talent for presiding over chaos really came to the fore. Under his watch ScotRail became a running joke, with public uproar at overcrowding and train cancellations. He was mocked as out of touch after claiming ScotRail ‘isn’t a poor service’. An apology wasn’t long in coming. During his tenure at transport, Yousaf suffered the ignominy of a £300 fine and six penalty points on his licence for driving without insurance. He claimed to be ‘mortified’.
Yousaf’s gilded life as one of the SNP’s most high-profile politicians (competence is merely an optional extra in a party that has become used to untrammelled power) led to another promotion to justice secretary in 2018. Here too he showed a talent for being the wrong man in the wrong place. He was forced to apologise for the failings of a review into the vaginal mesh scandal, a bungled investigation which had left victims incensed.
Yousaf tweeted his condolences after the death of a Glaswegian gangster, a tweet quickly deleted
He faced criticism for not being ‘on top of his brief’ after he failed to answer basic questions at a Holyrood committee session about his ‘chaotic’ policy on quarantining travellers arriving into Scotland at the height of the pandemic. He came under fire for his role in introducing controversial hate crime legislation placing draconian limits on free speech (with Yousaf suggesting conversations over the dinner table which incite hatred should be prosecuted). He achieved the singular feat of uniting the Catholic Church and the National Secular Society in opposition to his plans.
Another misstep was his dismissal of concerns about the state of police buildings as ‘hyperbole’: a few hours later the ceiling collapsed at his local police station. His Twitter activity is another arena in which he keeps falling into traps of his own making. He rushed to criticise Rangers football players for being filmed supposedly making sectarian chants. The video later turned out to be fake.
He tweeted his condolences after the death of a Glaswegian gangster, a tweet quickly deleted. He even ridiculed the then Tory leader Douglas Ross for tripping over at a football match then complained a few months later when he was caught on camera falling over in a Holyrood corridor. Self-aware he is not.
The gaffes have continued in his present job as health secretary. He was forced to apologise after claiming that young children had been hospitalised ‘because of Covid’. He had to admit to an error in failing to wear a mask throughout a visit to a Glasgow school, somehow managing to break his own guidelines on face coverings. He has faced repeated criticism over the performance of the NHS, in particular growing A&E waiting times.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman, described him as ‘without a doubt the worst minister I have ever had the misfortune of shadowing’. Few would disagree.
What does it say about the SNP that Yousaf has been described as the ‘continuity candidate’, as if this is recommendation enough? Continuity of the SNP kind — in other words more of the same — is the last thing Scottish voters need.
Humza Yousaf, in failing ever upwards, is living proof that the nationalists are running on empty after fifteen long years in power. Scots deserve better.
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