HUMZA’S YOUTURN
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Humza Yousaf has declared “I’m my own man” and criticised Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership in a bid to lose his “continuity candidate” tag in the SNP leadership race.
After a chaotic three days for the SNP hierarchy, Yousaf said he would take a “big tent” approach as leader and hit out at the “inner circle” style used by the out-going SNP leader.
The Health Secretary, one of three candidates vying to take the top job in Scottish politics, spoke out during a leadership debate on LBC radio in Glasgow last night as the Nationalists continued to deal with the fall-out from a dramatic weekend of resignations.
Peter Murrell, the longserving SNP chief executive and husband of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, dramatically quit on Saturday after the party was found to have misled the media on its membership numbers.
Yousaf was appearing on the debate alongside rivals Ash Regan and Kate Forbes with less than a week to go before the leadership result is finally revealed.
Yousaf has previously praised Murrell and Sturgeon and was the only candidate to back the chief executive staying on in his role.
But last night he told LBC host Iain Dale the last 72 hours had been “incredibly difficult” for the SNP.
He added: “I’ll be my own man and do things my own way and differently to a large extent to Nicola Sturgeon.
“I’ll take a different leadership approach. I like and admire Nicola and I respect her a lot, but she took quite an inner circle approach to leadership and it served her well, and served the party well.
“She had a close number of people she would often speak to and refer to that would advise. It’s not a secret and people have talked about that for many, many years.
“My approach to leadership would be one of a big tent. We’ve got a huge amount of talent – in Westminster, we have Stephen Flynn and Mhairi Black, who are great MPs.”
Humza’s change of direction comes as Mike Russell, the interim chief executive of the SNP, yesterday ruled out calls
I will be my own man and do things my own way and differently to a large extent from Nicola Sturgeon
for the leadership ballot being restarted despite a call by Regan. Speaking on the LBC debate, Regan was asked if she had full faith in the integrity of the election. Regan said: “I am the only candidate who started off saying they wanted a fresh direction as I thought we had issues in the party – and some of my fellow candidates here ridiculed me and said I was ridiculous and there was no need to change. “I think we can see from events over the weekend, with three very high profile resignations, that things are not fine and we do need to go in a different direction.”
Regan added: “I think there is a significant amount of voter regret out there at the moment.
“This contest is being run in what I consider to be an inappropriately short timeframe.”
She continued: “Now, what’s happened in the last week, is the material circumstances of the party have changed beyond all recognition.
“And I think some members may be thinking about how they cast a vote – and they may be thinking that things are not quite what they thought they were.”
Regan also confirmed that she is no longer considering taking legal action against the party in a bid to postpone the election.
Finance Secretary Forbes insisted change was needed in the party.
She said: “You do have to get your own house in order to maintain the trust of the Scottish people. But that’s why I keep talking about change. I said from the beginning that continuity won’t cut it because the status quo is great if we reflect on our track record but we need to build on it.”
In a statement issued shortly
before the debate began, Russell refused a plea by Regan to give members a chance to “edit” their vote in the party’s leadership contest.
He said: “I have heard from each of the candidates, or their teams, today and I am glad that we are all working together to ensure that there is confidence in the integrity of the current process.
“On the specific issues raised today, it would clearly be massively disruptive and confusing for members to be able to recall their ballot – something that is not done in any public election and which cyber security experts have advised – most recently to the
Conservatives when they considered an online ability to change a vote – could be subject to hacking attempts.”
Yousaf and Forbes, the two frontunners in the race, also clashed over tax during the LbC debate last night.
Asked why she had ruled out any further income tax rises for high-earners if she became first minister, the Finance Secretary claimed higher tax in Scotland could see less revenue coming in.
She said: “Tax has been raised under the SNP and I support that progressive increase.
“but as you know, we have very limited tools when it comes to tax so we can only set rates and bands. And I really care about ensuring we have the public revenue to reinvest in our public services.
“We need to increase our tax base. If the divergence with the rest of the UK is too profound, you then jeopardise that revenue that is coming in.”
Earlier, a Christian Labour shadow minister criticised Forbes for “old fashioned” views on sexuality and the family.
Shadow business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he did not feel sorry for SNP leadership hopeful Forbes after she came under scrutiny for her views on gay marriage and having children outside of wedlock.
He said “the core bit of
Christianity is how we should treat each other” and conservative views on social issues were “detrimental to faith and politics”.
Forbes’ leadership campaign got off to a rocky start after she said she’d have voted against gay marriage if she had been an MSP at the time and that she believed having children outside of marriage is “wrong”.
Forbes said she would not roll back on laws that are in place but leading Nats signed a letter expressing concern LGbTQ+ rights could be rolled back.
When asked if he felt bad for Forbes, Reynolds said: “I don’t. I don’t think politicians are the victims in any of this.”