Scotland gets its first leader of color as Humza Yousaf is elected new ruling party chief
LONDON — Scotland’s governing Scottish National Party elected Humza Yousaf as its new leader Monday after a bruising five-week contest that exposed deep fractures within the pro-independence movement.
The 37-year-old son of South Asian immigrants is set to become the first person of color and the first Muslim to serve as Scotland’s first minister since the post was established in 1999.
Yousaf, who currently is Scotland’s health minister, beat two other Scottish lawmakers in a contest to replace First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. She unexpectedly stepped down last month after eight years as leader of the party and of Scotland’s semi-autonomous government.
Yousaf, who is due to be confirmed as first minister by Scottish lawmakers on Tuesday, faces the challenge of uniting the SNP and re-energizing its campaign for Scottish independence from the rest of the United Kingdom.
“Just as I will lead the SNP in the interests of all party members, not just those who voted for me, so I will lead Scotland in the interests of all our citizens, whatever your political allegiance,” he said in an acceptance speech at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield rugby stadium.
Yousaf paid tribute to his late grandparents, who emigrated from the Punjab region to Glasgow more than 60 years ago.
The U.K. Supreme Court has ruled that Scotland does not have the power to hold a new referendum on independence without the consent of the British government.
“They couldn’t have imagined, in their wildest dreams, that two generations later their grandson would one day be Scotland’s first minister,” he said. “We should all take pride in the fact that today we have sent a clear message that your color of skin, your faith, is not a barrier to leading the country we all call home.”
The SNP’s 72,000 members narrowly chose Yousaf over Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, with lawmaker Ash Regan a distant third.
Yousaf is widely seen as a continuity candidate who shares Sturgeon’s liberal social views.
A formidable leader who led the SNP to a dominant position in Scottish politics, Sturgeon failed in her aim of leading Scotland out of the U.K. and divided the party with a contentious transgender rights law.
Twenty-five people have been injured after a large ship once owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen tipped over in a dry dock in Scotland.
The three candidates to succeed her share the goal of independence but differ in their economic and social visions for Scotland.
Forbes, 32, is an evangelical Christian who has been criticized for saying that her faith would have prevented her from voting in favor of allowing same-sex couples to wed if she had been a lawmaker when Scotland legalized marriage equality in 2014.
Both Forbes and the 49-year-old Regan opposed legislation championed by Sturgeon to make it easier for people in Scotland to legally change their gender.
The gender recognition bill has been hailed as a landmark piece of legislation by trans rights activists, but faced opposition from some SNP members who said it ignored the need to protect single-sex spaces for women, such as domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers.
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Yousaf has promised to push forward with the legislation, which has been passed by the Scottish parliament but blocked by the central British government in London.
The SNP holds 64 of the 129 seats in the Scottish parliament and governs in coalition with the much smaller Greens. The smaller party had warned that it might quit the coalition if the SNP elected a leader who didn’t share its progressive views, which meant that a victory by Forbes or Regan could have splintered the government.
Yousaf faces the challenge of leading the independence movement out of an impasse.
Scottish voters backed remaining in the U.K. in a 2014 referendum that was billed as a once-in-a-generation decision. The SNP wants a new vote, but the government in London has refused to authorize one, and the British Supreme Court has ruled that Scotland can’t hold one without London’s consent.
Voters in Scotland decide to preserve their 300-year-old union with Britain.
Yousaf has signaled he will act cautiously. He says he wants to build a “settled, sustained” majority for independence. Polls currently suggest Scottish voters are split about evenly on the issue.
“To those in Scotland who don’t yet share the passion I do for independence, I will aim to earn your trust by continuing to govern well,” Yousaf said.
Critics say Yousaf, who served in several posts in Sturgeon’s government, bears some responsibility for Scotland’s long healthcare waiting times, homelessness problem and high drug death toll.
The bruising leadership contest has sent the SNP’s poll ratings plunging — to the delight of the Labor Party and the Conservatives, which hope to gain seats in Scotland during the next U.K.-wide election, due by the end of 2024.
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