I f you’ve been paying attention to Scottish politics over the last few years, you may have noticed that these are turbulent times.
On Monday, Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister (essentially the prime minister of the devolved Scottish parliament in Edinburgh) and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), announced his resignation after 13 months in office. Yousaf, who faced opposition both on his left and right, made a fatal gamble in blowing up his coalition with the left-wing Green Party over climate change. Lacking allies, Yousaf’s minority government became untenable. He was facing two confidence votes later this week without the means to survive them. Rather than endure the humiliation, he quit.
Yousaf took the job in March 2023, after his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon, resigned in disgrace. This followed police investigation into the embezzlement of party funds over which she was arrested and her husband, the SNP’s former chief executive, was charged last week.
Yousaf was chosen by the party supposedly as a “continuity candidate.” And to the extent that he’s provided continuity for the SNP’s legacy of shame and incompetence — he was exactly that.
Sturgeon survived several scandals such as the SNP’s bungled ferry deal and the unlawful treatment (misfeasance) of Alex Salmond, after the former first minister was accused of sexual misconduct. Then there were the deleted pandemic messages. During Britain’s ongoing public inquiry into the handling of the Covid pandemic, it transpired that Sturgeon had deleted every WhatsApp message she sent and received during that time, despite promising the public in 2021 that she would give all relevant communications to any future inquiry. So much for transparency.
Unfortunately for the SNP, however, its recent financial scandal related directly to its foundational promise: Scottish independence. Since 2017, £667,000 was raised in donations for an SNP campaign for a second independence referendum. However, the campaign never got off the ground. So, what happened to the money? That is the question the Scottish police are now investigating — beginning with the party leaders’ own pockets.
With the cause of independence so severely damaged, Yousaf tried to explain how he would rescue it. But his efforts to do so failed miserably. In June 2023, he caused confusion by appearing to water down Sturgeon’s vision of what constitutes a mandate for a second independence referendum.
Another weakness of Sturgeon’s that Yousaf foolishly imitated was her obsession with Scotland being more woke than any other country. Sturgeon tried to put Scotland on the map as the first country where LGBTQ+ history is mandated. It was under her that the infamous “named person” scheme was introduced — the idea of having government-appointed workers overseeing the parenting of every child in the country, which was scrapped after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that it violated human-rights law. As if her far-left credentials weren’t enough, she even took the title of her memoir, “Women Hold Up Half the Sky,” from a quote by the communist tyrant Mao Zedong.
Yousaf had a front-row seat as this excessive social progressivism contributed to Sturgeon’s downfall. Her dogmatic pursuit of transgender ideology backfired with her gender self-ID law after a convicted rapist (male but newly identifying as a woman) was transferred to a women’s prison. The law was so insane that for the first time in the Scottish parliament’s 25-year history, the U.K. government intervened on the side of public opinion to veto the bill.
Keir Starmer, leader of the U.K. Labour Party, admits that he took note of Sturgeon’s mistake on the transgender issue and vowed not to repeat it, finally acknowledging the biological reality of sex. Yet Yousaf did not have such insight.
During Yousaf’s tenure as first minister, his commitment to “trans women are women” became evident in his continued support for Sturgeon’s Gender Recognition Reform bill. He also embedded trans ideology in his egregious Hate Crime and Public Order bill, which protected men (“trans women”) but not real women and punished those who offend woke orthodoxies with up to seven years’ imprisonment.
Not only were these laws polarizing, they also were completely detached from the most pressing issues facing Scotland (its drug and education crises, for instance). This has become the SNP’s trademark.
The SNP’s climate target, to reduce carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030, was always a fantasy. When Yousaf realized as much and shifted the goalposts, his coalition with the climate and gender zealots, the Scottish Green Party, blew up in his face. The Greens were already furious about the SNP’s decision to follow the Cass report’s recommendations in pausing the prescription of puberty blockers for minors in Scotland, another political reality that Yousaf began to face too late.
The time for “continuity” is over. If the SNP had any sense, it would choose a fresh start and elect Kate Forbes. The Cambridge graduate and former finance secretary has an impressive political record. During the last leadership contest (which she narrowly lost to Yousaf), her willingness to state her religious principles honestly on controversial issues such as abortion and gay marriage — knowing it would cost her politically — shows that she is a person of integrity. And despite her social conservatism, Forbes was more popular than Yousaf with the public. Trust is an important quality, given how scandal-ridden the SNP has become. But don’t expect a party of left-wing radicals to do something sensible.