Scottish National Party elects Humza Yousaf as leader after chaotic race
HUMZA Yousaf has won the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon as head of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), after a fractious battle that laid bare the scale of the challenge to unite the party and country.
He is expected to be formally appointed as first minister in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Tuesday (Mar 28), ending Sturgeon’s more than eight years at the helm of Scottish politics following her surprise resignation last month.
Yousaf is currently the health secretary and was widely seen as her favoured replacement, styling himself as the “continuity candidate” in the three-way leadership battle with Finance Secretary Kate Forbes and former minister Ash Regan.
The 37-year-old, who will be the first person from an ethnic minority background to lead the Scottish government, faced criticism from opposition parties over the state of the health service on his watch. Healthcare in Scotland is plagued by a backlog of procedures, and waiting times for ambulances and emergency care have jumped.
Sturgeon leaves the new leader with a series of challenges, including fixing the SNP’s patchy record on health and education, resolving a scandal over island ferry contracts, and negotiating a police probe into party finances. Scotland’s economy is also lagging behind the UK as a whole.
Yousaf is also tasked with reinvigorating the campaign for independence, after recent polls showed a dip in support for leaving the UK. The government in London refuses to allow another referendum.
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His first hurdle, though, will be to reunite a party that once prided itself on its internal discipline and united front. During the race, Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, resigned as the SNP’s chief executive over misleading statements regarding a drop of about 30,000 in the party’s membership.
During the six-week leadership contest, the openly hostile candidates criticised each other’s records in government. The fallout led to a drop in support for the SNP, although it retained a healthy lead against the Conservatives and Labour Party.
A survey by Survation showed that backing for the party in national elections had fallen to its lowest level in five years. Appetite for Scottish independence also fell to its lowest level since the autumn of 2018, the poll showed.
Yousaf will also need to overhaul the SNP’s strategy for securing a new vote on Scottish independence and find a way to engage a Conservative government in London that has rebuffed all approaches by saying now is not the time. The country is still divided on the issue of independence, with no clear road map on how to move the needle.
Sturgeon, 52, said a vote on full autonomy is the nation’s democratic right after Scotland voted against Brexit. But the Supreme Court ruled late last year that calling a plebiscite unilaterally would be unlawful. Her fall-back plan was to turn the next UK general election into a de facto referendum, though Yousaf has said he is likely to shelve that.
There is also the prospect of trouble within the Scottish government. A month before Sturgeon resigned, the UK blocked a controversial gender-recognition bill passed by the Scottish Parliament after a feud over the protection of women’s rights. The SNP’s coalition partner, the Green Party, suggested that it would review its role should the next leader not seek to reverse that veto. BLOOMBERG
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