Scotland’s first Muslim to become First Minister, Humza Yousaf has resigned from his post after falling short of majority. The scenario developed after Humza Yousaf abruptly terminated a power-sharing deal between his Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Green Party last week, hoping to run a minority administration, however, the opposition parties filed a no-confidence motion. Yousaf will continue as the First Minister of Scotland until his successor is elected. Yousaf became Scotland’s First Minister in March 2023.
Addressing a press conference at his Bute House residence, Humza Yousaf said, “After spending the weekend reflecting on what is best for my party, for the government and for the country I lead, I’ve concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm. I have therefore informed the SNP’s national secretary of my intention to stand down as party leader.”
Interestingly, Yousaf’s resignation came just days after he ‘vowed’ to face the two confidence motions and expressed ‘confidence’ over winning the same. However, in just two days the SNP leader backtracked and decided to resign.
“I’m quite confident, very confident in fact, that I’ll be able to win that vote of no confidence,” Yousaf said.
Last week, the Scottish arm of the Conservative Party had called Yousaf a ‘lame duck’ and said that it would topple his government.
Notably, the Yousaf-led government was facing criticism over an alleged funding scam. In April last year, the SNP’s treasurer was arrested after the police found that the 600,000 pounds ($750,000) raised by Scottish independence campaigners in 2017 were used for “other purposes”.
The SNP is also losing popular support after 17 years of heading the Scottish Government. YouGov, a polling firm reported earlier this month that, for the first time in a decade, the Labour Party has surpassed the SNP in voting intentions for the Westminster elections.
When Humza Yousaf was infuriated over white people holding senior posts in Scotland
Interestingly, Humza Yousaf is of Pakistani origin, where the constitution explicitly says that only Muslims can be the Prime Minister and President of the country, Yousaf in Scotland held many important government positions in the last few years. However, despite the acceptance and opportunities he received in Scotland, Yousaf has come across as a leader harbouring disdain for the Whites.
Recently, a video of Humza Yousaf lamenting over the presence of whites in most senior positions in Scotland. Although the said video was from June 2020, when Yousaf was Scotland’s Health Minister his anti-white monologue was alarming. Amidst the global outrage over American African man George Floyd’s murder, Yousaf in the barb of addressing ‘social injustice’ and lack of black people in top government positions, exposed his anti-White mindset and suggested that the white people dominate government and parliamentary positions.
“Most senior positions in Scotland are filled almost exclusively by people who are white the Lord President, Lord Justice Clerk and Solicitor General in the justice department, and the chief medical officer, chief nursing officer and chief social work adviser in the health department…Almost every trade union in this country (is) headed by people who are white. In the Scottish Government, every director general is white. Every chair of every public body is white…” Yousaf said.
Humza Yousaf was angry over white people holding top positions in government in a country which has over 90% white population.
FM Yousaf gave away Scottish people’s money to Hamas-linked UNRWA to support his co-religionists in Gaza
In March this year, Humza Yousaf gave £250,000 money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the largest aid agency operating in Gaza. Yousaf had no qualms in squandering the Scottish taxpayer’s money to an agency having links with Palestinian terrorist group Hamas which in October last year brutally killed thousands of Israeli civilians. Yousaf’s decision came despite his officials recommending donating £100,000-£200,000 to UNICEF for a water programme. Yousaf had faced severe backlash over this decision. His interference in the allocation of funds to aid agencies was seen as a conflict of interest and a breach of the ministerial code.
It is pertinent to mention here that several UNRWA staff members were accused of being involved in the 7th October terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas. Following the outrage over this, the UN agency terminated the contracts of its accused employees. In February this year, the Israeli military said that it uncovered a Hamas tunnel under UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) school.
Interestingly, Yousaf’s mother-in-law and father-in-law were trapped in Gaza last year as the Hamas-Israel conflict broke out. Reports say that on November 2nd Yousaf met a delegation of UNRWA in Edinburgh as well as publicly announced the donation to UNRWA and the very next day his family was given a safe passage out of Gaza via Rafah crossing.