Thank you to Humza for his service
BY PAISLEY AND RENFREWSHIRE SOUTH MP MHAIRI BLACK
Humza Yousaf has resigned as SNP leader and will step down as our First Minister.
After making the bold move to end the Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Green Party and go into minority government, the Greens then refused to work with Humza as First Minister going forward and would have sided with Labour and the Conservatives in pushing through a vote of no confidence in the First Minister.
Firstly, I want to thank Humza Yousaf for his service to our country and always putting the people of Scotland first, I wish him and his family all the best going forward.
He has done an immense job of highlighting Scotland’s case for being an independent country and brought forward groundbreaking policies such as the Scottish Child Payment which has helped so many families in Scotland that are struggling due to the never ending austerity agenda coming from Westminster.
Humza did incredible work in drawing the attention of the international community to Scotland.
He became the first Muslim leader of a European country and when he publicly differentiated Scotland from the UK in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, it made me proud to call him the leader of our country.
Despite years of cuts from the UK Government, statistics show that under Humza Yousaf public services are all in a better state than in Tory-run
England or in Labour-run Wales, but our opponents are careful never to make direct comparisons between our devolved NHS or education system and the same services elsewhere in the UK.
The SNP’s continued desire is for bold, visionary and progressive policies on issues like fair taxation, a just transition, a strong industrial strategy, empowering our young people, ethnic minorities and LGBTQ community, continued investment in local services, doing everything within the powers we possess to take action against poverty, and ultimately putting pressure on the UK Government for full economic powers to come to the Scottish Government – which inevitably means independence for Scotland.
Over the weekend the weather behaved itself and we had the pleasure of having the Paisley Food and Drink Festival on our doorstep.
Thousands attended what was another successful event in Paisley town centre. Events such as this and other favourites of mine such as the Paisley Halloween Festival are brilliant and good for the Renfrewshire community and healthy for the local economy.
The food and drink festival is always a great day out for local families to obviously enjoy the food and drink on offer, but local musicians and acts also put on live performances and free activities are available for kids. Well done to everyone that makes this happen for the town each year and long it may it continue.