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Humza Haroon Yousaf ( / ˈhʌmzə ˈjuːsəf /; [1] born 7 April 1985) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) 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.
Apr 26, 2024 · A profile of Humza Yousaf, who has announced his resignation as SNP leader and Scottish first minister.
Apr 29, 2024 · 7 days ago. By Stuart Nicolson,BBC Scotland News. WATCH: The tumultuous 12 days that ended Humza Yousaf’s time in power. The search has begun for a new first minister of Scotland following...
- 1 min
- Stuart Nicolson
Apr 29, 2024 · Humza Yousaf is to resign as Scotland's first minister, the BBC understands. He has arrived at Bute House in Edinburgh, the first minister's official residence, for a press conference at 12:00....
- Overview
- Early life and career
- Personal life
- Ascent to first minister
Humza Yousaf (born April 7, 1985, Glasgow, Scotland) Scottish politician who in 2023 became the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the sixth first minister of Scotland when he replaced the long-serving Nicola Sturgeon. Yousaf, who is of Pakistani heritage, is the second Muslim to lead a major British political party and the first perso...
Yousaf was born and reared in Glasgow, to which his father and mother came as immigrants from Pakistan and Kenya, respectively, in the 1960s. In 1979 his father became the first person of colour to join the SNP. Yousaf was encouraged by his parents to become involved in community activities, and at age 10 he began volunteering for the NGO Islamic Relief, for which he became a media spokesperson as an adult. He attended the private Hutchesons’ Grammar School in Glasgow (alma mater of R.D. Laing) before matriculating at the University of Glasgow, from which he earned a degree in politics. While a student, he founded a program that provided packages of food for asylum seekers in Glasgow.
Having joined the SNP in 2004, Yousaf began his political career in 2007, working as an office manager and aide for the SNP’s Bashir Ahmad, who was the first member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) of South Asian heritage and a family friend whom Yousaf had known since childhood. Upon the death of Ahmad in 2009, Yousaf began working for a series of other prominent SNP MSPs, beginning with Anne McLaughlin and including Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. Yousaf attained his first elected office at age 26, when he was chosen as an MSP for the Glasgow region in 2011. He took the oath of office in both Urdu and English, as he would in 2016, when he wore both a sherwani (coat traditionally worn by Pakistani men) and a kilt to be sworn in as an MSP representing the Glasgow Pollok constituency.
From 2010 to 2016, Yousaf was married to SNP activist Gail Lythgoe. Following their divorce, in 2019 he married Nadia El-Nakla, a psychotherapist of partial Palestinian descent who began representing the West End ward on the Dundee City Council in 2022. Together they have two daughters (one from a previous relationship of El-Nakla’s). They live in ...
When Sturgeon stunned Scotland in February 2023 by announcing her intention to resign as SNP leader and first minister because she felt that she could no longer bring the energy to her job that was necessary to perform it, Yousaf, at age 37, entered the scramble to replace her. Because his tenure as a senior minister had been at times controversial, some political observers characterized his pursuit of the leadership as a fall upward. Nevertheless, though Sturgeon did not endorse him, Yousaf was thought to be her preferred candidate. Moreover, he received the support of many high-placed SNP officials and politicians, and he was widely viewed as a “continuity candidate” who shared Sturgeon’s liberal social outlook. That liberal social orientation was essential to winning the support of the Green Party, the junior partner in the SNP’s ruling coalition in the Scottish Parliament.
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The three-way race for the leadership was contested by Yousaf; Finance Secretary Kate Forbes (age 32), a socially conservative member of the evangelical Free Church of Scotland who opposed same-sex marriage; and Ash Regan (age 49), a former community safety minister who said that she would not fight the U.K. government’s blocking of Scottish legislation that permitted transgender people in Scotland to change their legal gender by self-declaration without a medical diagnosis. Sturgeon’s championing of that controversial law (Gender Recognition Reform [Scotland] Bill) had weakened her hold on the party. Yousaf was the only one of the three candidates to commit to undertaking a legal challenge of the blocking of the law, though he said he would withdraw the challenge if it were the opinion of the lord advocate, Scotland’s top law official, that pursuit of the case would be futile. On the pivotal issue of staging a new referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, Yousaf pledged to “re-energise the independence campaign in the best interests of our nation” but hedged on Sturgeon’s promise to frame the next U.K. general election, scheduled for 2025, as a de facto referendum on Scottish independence.
Mar 28, 2023 · Who is Humza Yousaf, Scotland's new first minister. 28 March 2023. By Stuart Nicolson,BBC Scotland News. PA Media. Humza Yousaf with his wife Nadia El-Nakla, daughter Amal, and...
Apr 29, 2024 · April 29, 2024. Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, resigned on Monday in a fresh setback for his Scottish National Party, which has been engulfed in a slow-burning crisis over a funding...
