Yousaf rues SNP ‘own goal’
SNP LEADERSHIP candidate Humza Yousaf has said the party’s row over membership numbers is an “own goal”. Long-standing chief executive Peter Murrell, who is Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, quit on Saturday after taking responsibility for misleading figures briefed to the press. The SNP’s membership figures were revealed on Thursday after all three candidates vying to replace Sturgeon called for transparency around the exact number – which had fallen by about 30,000 in just over a year.
Yousaf visited the Glasgow Gurdwara yesterday and met members of the Sikh community. In a brief speech in the gurdwara’s prayer hall, he thanked them and spoke about his own Punjabi heritage.
After the partition of India, his grandfather travelled to the Pakistani side of the Punjab, he said. The Health Secretary said: “Keep me in your prayers – I take prayers wherever I can get them from. This job can sometimes be quite difficult.”
Addressing Murrell and media chief Murray Foote’s resignation outside, he said: “The party scored a bit of an own goal here, we should have released those membership numbers earlier on at the beginning of this contest.
“But I want to reassure the members, although the last few days have absolutely been challenging, I wouldn’t suggest otherwise, there’s still a strong foundation to build upon.
“Over 70,000 members makes us the biggest, largest political party in Scotland by some distance.”
Asked if someone in the party should apologise, he said Murrell had done the “honourable thing” in resigning.
He added: “I want to pay tribute to Peter.”
He said it was vital now for a new chief executive to bridge the “disconnect” felt between branches and headquarters.
And discussing the party’s finances, he said: “Clearly If I’m elected leader of the SNP it’s one of the first things I’d want to get up to speed on.”