Humza Yousaf: Nicola Sturgeon’s successor and Scotland’s next leader

London, March 28 (BNA): Hamza Yusuf, the man who will become Scotland’s first Muslim leader after an agonizing contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon, is an experienced minister facing the difficult task of uniting the SNP around its quest for independence.

Yusuf’s victory in the race to become first minister in the semi-autonomous government of Scotland announced that Yusuf would be the first Muslim to lead a country in Western Europe, Reuters reported.

As a close ally of Sturgeon, he was considered a candidate for continuity, and his victory in the SNP leadership vote indicated that the party would not abandon its progressive policies.

However, he distanced himself from her planned path to independence, saying that the party needed to return to championing the cause of independence, rather than debating the endless process.

He will also have to try to unite the party after a brutal leadership campaign that exposed divisions among the candidates over their approach to independence and social issues.

“We will be the generation that gives independence to Scotland,” Youssef said in Edinburgh after the result.

“Where there are divisions to heal, we must do it and we must do it quickly because we have a job to do and as a party we are at our strongest when we are united, and what unites is our common goal of achieving independence for our nation.”

Youssef said his faith is “not the foundation on which I would embark” and that he supports equal marriage, after a disagreement over the opinions of his main rival for the role, Kate Forbes.

He also said he plans to challenge the UK government’s decision to block a bill passed by the Scottish Parliament that would make it easier for people to change their legal gender.

His progressive social views must secure a deal with the Greens to support an SNP government.

Born in Glasgow, the 37-year-old holds a degree in Politics from the University of Glasgow. After graduating, he worked as an Assistant Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) before being himself elected as a Member of the Scottish Parliament in 2011.

His father is of Pakistani descent and came to Scotland in the 1960s, while his mother was born in Kenya into a family of South Asian descent. He has a child with his second wife, as well as a daughter-in-law.

Joseph, a Republican, said an independent Scotland should consider getting rid of the monarchy, telling the National in an interview: “Let’s certainly, within the first five years, consider whether we should move away from the monarchy to an elected head of state.”

Youssef was first appointed Department Minister in 2012, at the time the youngest person and the first ethnic minority to be appointed to the Scottish government. He joined the Cabinet in 2018 as Minister of Justice and became Minister of Health in May 2021.

Yusuf has been criticized for his record as health minister, with Audit Scotland saying last month that the healthcare system was facing unprecedented challenges and that the Scottish government needed to be more transparent about progress being made or not.

She said the proportion of patients seen within the four-hour target in accident and emergency departments was declining and hundreds of thousands of Scots were waiting for hospital procedures, outpatient appointments and diagnostic tests.

Youssef said he would seek to carry out his duties in government to win the confidence of voters, while also looking to build a case for independence among the wavering.

“We certainly have more work to do to convince people,” he said.

“We wouldn’t be standing here if that weren’t the case.”

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