Humza Yousaf, a 37-year-old Scottish politician of Pakistani origin, is the favourite to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP). Sturgeon resigned in February 2021, and Yousaf hopes to lead the country in the wake of her resignation. The SNP's number one priority is independence, and the leadership contest has exposed divisions within the party regarding its future direction. Yousaf has promised more of the same and pledged to preserve the SNP’s "winning formula" of progressive values, urging the party to quit "obsessing" with process. This article delves into Yousaf's background, political convictions, and personal story, highlighting why he's seen as someone who can bring about radical change.
Humza Yousaf: A Conviction Politician with a Compelling Backstory
Humza Yousaf is the son of immigrants who arrived in Glasgow in the 1960s. His father came from Mian Channu, Pakistan, and his mother was born into a South Asian family in Kenya, forced to flee the country after a rise in violence against the Asian population. Yousaf is a conviction politician with a compelling backstory that takes some beating.
He is seen as someone who can bring about radical change. An SNP insider at Westminster said, “He is saying radical change is what I am. It is what I represent.” In interviews, Yousaf has often spoken of how 9/11 changed his world and sparked his political awakening. He was at Hutchesons’ Grammar School in Glasgow at the time, and his classmates asked questions like: "Why do Muslims hate America?"
The fallout prompted him to find out more about his religious and cultural heritage. By 2003, he was marching against the United States-led invasion of Iraq in London. "We joined more than two million others who took to the streets to voice our anger at what was an illegal invasion predicated on a lie," he later wrote. Reading politics at the University of Glasgow, he joined the SNP in 2005 after hearing an anti-war speech by former SNP leader Alex Salmond.
His convictions were further deepened after another speech by the mother of Gordon Gentle, a 19-year-old boy from Pollok who had been killed by a roadside bomb in Basra. It struck Yousaf that only independence would prevent Scotland from being dragged into an illegal war.
The SNP's Drive for Independence
While most Scots rejected independence in a 2014 referendum, the party's drive for self-determination was given fresh impetus by the 2016 Brexit vote, which forced Scotland out of the European Union along with the rest of the UK. In the EU membership poll, most Scots voted to remain in the bloc, unlike the English.
But Holyrood requires a transfer of legal powers from Westminster to hold another vote – a request that has been refused so far. Under Sturgeon’s stewardship, the SNP has focused on progressive policies in areas like transgender rights and welfare reform, but the big question of how it will achieve its number one priority looms ever larger.
Yousaf's Rise to Power
Yousaf's rise to power comes just as the SNP juggernaut has run into the sand. While he is the frontrunner to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the ruling Scottish National Party later this month, his success in leading the nation to independence is uncertain.
As a cabinet member, Yousaf has been tasked with some tricky briefs, most recently as the health secretary in charge of a crisis-ridden National Health Service (NHS) during the coronavirus pandemic. Now SNP bigwigs believe he is the man who can hold together an increasingly fractious party – now
