Humza Yousaf
Humza Haroon Yousaf is a British politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party from March 2023 to May 2024. He served under his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon as justice secretary from 2018 to 2021 and then as health secretary from 2021 to 2023. He has been Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Pollok since 2016, having previously been a regional MSP for Glasgow from 2011 to 2016.
Born to Pakistani immigrants in Glasgow, Yousaf studied politics at the University of Glasgow, before working as a parliamentary assistant for Bashir Ahmad, the first Muslim and the first second-generation immigrant elected to the Scottish Parliament. Following Ahmad's death in 2009, Yousaf went on to work as a parliamentary assistant for both Alex Salmond and Sturgeon. Prior to his election at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, he worked in the SNP's party headquarters as a communications officer. Appointed as a junior minister under Salmond in 2012, Yousaf served as Minister for External Affairs and International Development until 2014.
Yousaf supported Sturgeon's successful leadership bid in 2014 and after she was sworn in as first minister, he was subsequently appointed as Europe minister before being appointed Minister for Transport and the Islands in 2016. As part of a cabinet reshuffle of Sturgeon's second ministry in 2018, Yousaf was promoted to the cabinet as justice secretary. He introduced a controversial hate-speech bill to parliament which ultimately became law as the Hate Crime and Public Order Act 2021. In 2021, he was appointed health secretary during the later phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and was responsible for the NHS's recovery, as well as the mass roll-out of the vaccination programme which began under his predecessor.
Following Sturgeon's resignation as leader of the SNP and as first minister, Yousaf won the 2023 SNP leadership election. Yousaf was appointed first minister on 29 March 2023, becoming the youngest person, the first Scottish Asian, and the first Muslim to serve in office. He was sworn into the Privy Council in May 2023. In April 2024, he formed a minority government after terminating a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens. After facing an imminent motion of no confidence amid a government crisis, he announced his intention to resign as first minister and party leader on 29 April 2024. He formally resigned on 7 May 2024 and was succeeded by John Swinney, becoming the second-shortest-serving first minister, after Henry McLeish.
Early life and education
Humza Yousaf was born on 7 April 1985 in Rutherglen Maternity Hospital in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire. He is a son of first-generation Muslim Rajput of Pakistani immigrants: his father Mian Muzaffar Yousaf was born in Mian Channu, Punjab, Pakistan, and emigrated from the city with his family in the 1960s, eventually working as an accountant.His paternal grandfather worked in the Singer sewing machine factory in Clydebank in the 1960s. Yousaf's mother, Shaaista Bhutta, was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to a family of Pakistani-Punjabi descent. Due to their non-African background, her family was regularly harassed and occasionally assaulted: following an incident where her mother was attacked with an axe, they emigrated to Scotland.
Humza attended Mearns Primary School in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire. Yousaf was one of two ethnic-minority pupils to attend his primary school. Yousaf was privately educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School, an independent school in Glasgow, where his Modern Studies lessons inspired him to become involved in politics.
He described the September 11 attacks as the "day that changed the world and for me" when he was 16 years old. Prior to the attack, Yousaf was close to two pupils whom he sat next to in his registration class, but after the attack in New York, he claims that they asked him questions such as, "Why do Muslims hate America?"
Yousaf studied politics at the University of Glasgow where he was President of the Glasgow University Muslim Students Association. He graduated in 2007 with a Master of Arts.
Early career and political involvement
From an early age, Yousaf was involved in community work, ranging from youth organisations to charity fundraising. He was the volunteer media spokesperson for the charity Islamic Relief, worked for community radio for twelve years and on a project which provided food packages to homeless people and asylum seekers in Glasgow.Yousaf joined the Scottish National Party in 2005, while studying at Glasgow university. Speeches by then-party leader Alex Salmond and anti-war activist Rose Gentle speaking out against the Iraq War convinced him that independence would be the only way for Scotland to avoid going to war. He started campaigning extensively for the SNP, including for the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, which resulted in the first SNP government in Scotland and Yousaf's first job in the Scottish parliament.
In 2006, Yousaf worked in an O2 call centre, before working as a parliamentary assistant for Bashir Ahmad, from Ahmad's election as Scotland's first Muslim MSP in 2007 until Ahmad's death two years later. Ahmad was a personal influence. Yousaf then worked as parliamentary assistant for a few other MSPs including Anne McLaughlin, Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, who was then First Minister. Before his election to the Scottish Parliament, he worked in the SNP's headquarters as a communications officer.
In 2008, while working as an aide, Yousaf partook of the International Visitor Leadership Program, a professional exchange run by the United States Department of State. He was awarded the "Future Force of Politics" at the Young Scottish Minority Ethnic Awards in 2009, which was presented to him in Glasgow City Chambers.
Early parliamentary career
Election to Holyrood
Yousaf was elected to the Scottish Parliament as an additional member for the Glasgow electoral region in the 2011 election. At 26 years old, he was the youngest MSP to be elected to the 4th parliament. When being sworn in, he took his oath in English and then in Urdu, reflecting his Scottish-Pakistani identity; he was dressed in a traditional sherwani decorated with a Partick Thistle tartan touch, and a plaid draped over his shoulder.He served on the SNP's backbenches and was a member of the parliament's justice and public audit committees. On 25 May 2011, Yousaf was appointed as a Parliamentary Liaison Officer to the Office of the First Minister, remaining in this post until 4 September 2012.
Junior ministerial career (2012–2018)
On 5 September 2012, First Minister Alex Salmond appointed Yousaf as Minister for External Affairs and International Development, responsible for external affairs, international development; fair trade policy and diaspora. This junior ministerial appointment saw him working under the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs. He was the first Scottish Asian and Muslim to be appointed as a minister to the Scottish Government.In October 2013, he outlined the SNP's plans to set out the United Nations target for overseas aid at 0.7% in an independent Scotland and accused the UK Government of going back on its promise in the 2010 coalition agreement to guarantee that level of spending. Yousaf also outlined that an independent Scotland would "add a progressive voice to global issues promoting peace, equality and fairness" and added independence would be "achieved through a democratic, peaceful means without a single drop of blood being spilled and engaging with all the diverse communities that make up our rich tapestry in Scotland.".
When Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister in November 2014 following Salmond's resignation, she kept Yousaf as a junior minister, although the name of the position he held was changed to the Minister for Europe and International Development.
On 18 May 2016, he was appointed as Minister for Transport and the Islands following the formation of Sturgeon's second government.
Cabinet Secretary for Justice (2018–2021)
On 26 June 2018, Sturgeon reshuffled her cabinet. She promoted Yousaf to the Scottish cabinet to serve as Cabinet Secretary for Justice, succeeding Michael Matheson. In the year prior to his appointment, 244,504 crimes were recorded by the police in Scotland; in the final year of his tenure, the figure was 246,511.Hate Crime Bill
One of his flagship policies was the Hate Crime and Public Order Bill, which he promised would streamline existing legislation as well as add additional protections to minorities while maintaining rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. The bill has been criticised by the Catholic Church, the National Secular Society as well as writers, and in September 2020 it was amended to remove prosecution for cases of unintentionally stirring up hate, which could theoretically include libraries stocking contentious books. Despite his initial promises, Yousaf in October 2020 said that the exception to the Public Order Act 1986 which allows people to use "otherwise illegal language" in their own homes should be abolished.Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (2021–2023)
In the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, Yousaf was re-elected as the MSP for the Glasgow Pollok constituency. The SNP fell two seats short of an overall majority in the election, but remained the largest party, with more than double the seats of the Scottish Conservatives. Sturgeon formed a third administration and appointed Yousaf as the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, succeeding Jeane Freeman, who stepped down at the election.COVID-19 pandemic
Yousaf entered office amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2021, he said that ten children up to the age of nine had been admitted to Scottish hospitals in the previous week "because of COVID". Professor Steve Turner, Scotland officer for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, contradicted him and said that children's wards were "not seeing a rise in cases with Covid". He added that the children in question had been hospitalised for other reasons. Yousaf clarified his statement and apologised for "any undue alarm".In July, the World Health Organisation concluded that six out of Europe's ten virus hotspots were in Scotland. Tayside topped the list with 1,002 cases per 100,000 head of population over the previous fortnight. The Scottish Government was accused of being 'missing in action' after it emerged that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister John Swinney and Yousaf were all on holiday. Yousaf said he had promised to take his stepdaughter to Harry Potter World, tweeting that: "Most important job I have is being a good father, step-father & husband to my wife and kids. In the last seven months they've had virtually no time from me."