Under Humza Yousaf, the Scottish National Party Has a Choice Between Revival and Decline
Humza Yousaf narrowly won the SNP leadership contest against a conservative challenger. If Yousaf doesn’t follow through on the left-wing policies in his campaign agenda, his party and the wider cause of Scottish independence face decline.
Newly appointed leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Humza Yousaf, speaks following the SNP Leadership election result announcement at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on March 27, 2023. (Andy Buchanan / AFP via Getty Images)
Yesterday, Humza Yousaf narrowly beat Kate Forbes in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the SNP. Today, Yousaf is being confirmed as Scotland’s sixth first minister since the dawn of devolution twenty-four years ago and its first from an ethnic minority background.
The new leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) — and of Scotland — is a thirty-seven-year-old Muslim, a self-described “republican” and “socialist” whose primary political objective is the break up of the British state. Under his leadership, the SNP and the wider cause of Scottish independence faces a stark choice between revival and decline.
Down to the Wire
Yousaf’s grandparents arrived in Scotland from Pakistan in the 1960s. His father, an accountant, became an SNP activist on the south side of Glasgow. Yousaf was sent to an elite Scottish private school — Hutchesons’ Grammar — in the 1990s and studied politics at Glasgow University, where he agitated against the war in Iraq and for Palestinian independence.
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