Minister carries alarm after racist death threats
● Humza Yousaf said he worries about his family’s safety after abuse
Transport minister Humza Yousaf has said racist threats left him so worried about his safety and that of his family that he carries a personal attack alarm.
The politician, who was the first Holyrood minister to come from an ethnic minority background, told how he had received a private briefing from the police on security after reporting some incidents.
He also said the abuse he faced had worsened since the Brexit vote in 2016 and the election of Donald Trump as US president.
Mr Yousaf, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, said: “I get worried about my family. I carry a personal alarm. I just do that par for the course and carry it in my jacket. I shouldn’t have a need to carry it.”
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf has said racist threats had left him so worried about his safety and that of his family that he carries an personal attack alarm as “par for the course”.
Mr Yousaf has also beefed up security at his house and his constituency office, and no longer conducts MSP surgeries alone.
The politician, who was the first Holyrood minister to come from an ethnic minority background, told how he had received a private briefing from the police on security after reporting some incidents.
He also said the abuse he faced had worsened since the vote in favour of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as US president.
Mr Yousaf highlighted a social media post showing a picture of him and his family, with the caption “Yet another problem that a machine gun would solve” as an example of the abuse he has had to deal with.
He spoke out after Labour MSP Anas Sarwar claimed that he had suffered racial abuse when he stood in the Scottish Labour leadership contest last year.
Mr Sarwar, a Glasgow MSP who lost out to left-winger Richard Leonard, claimed an elected Labour councillor had told him he could not support him because he was a “brown, Muslim Paki”.
Mr Yousaf, the MSP for Glasgow Pollok, said: “I get worried about my family. I’ve had a private briefing from police on the back of reporting some incidents. They said these are the steps that you might want to take to protect your constituency office and so forth.
“It’s not a place you want to be in. But I’ve had to take all those steps.
“I carry a personal alarm. I just do that par for the course and carry it in my jacket. I shouldn’t have a need to carry it.”
Headded:“duringbrexitand post-brexit it’s got worse without a shadow of doubt. Frankly, part of it is not helped by the polarised debate around faith, whether that’s in Europe or across the Pond in the United States.
“It has exacerbated things. Brexit is a horrible example of that, with the rhetoric and anti-immigration tone.”
Mr Sarwar said on Twitter: “You are right to speak out @Humzayousaf. Don’t listen to those that will undoubted- ly claim “race card”, do whataboutery or send more abuse. They inadvertently prove that everyday racism and Islamophobia exists.”
Writing in The Scotsman’s sister paper, Scotland on Sunday, yesterday, Mr Sarwar said: “To get to the root of this we need to address both conscious bias and unconscious bias.
“While the public focus will continue to be on confronting those who have consciously prejudiced views and ensuring that they aren’t given a platform or allowed to flourish, the harder task is actually making an unconscious bias conscious, so that people can challenge themselves. That’s how we will actually defeat prejudice in the long term.”
“The police said these are the steps that you might want to take to protect your constituency office”
HUMZA YOUSAF