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LONDON — Humza Yousaf hasn’t had the easiest ride as Scotland’s new first minister. And he’ll happily tell you that himself.
As Yousaf wondered how he would tackle the already overflowing in-tray that greeted him when he replaced Nicola Sturgeon, his Scottish National Party was rocked by the arrests of senior figures as part of a police probe into the party’s finances.
Yousaf has fronted up throughout the crisis, taking questions from journalists in impromptu huddles almost every day and releasing new information about the party’s finances seemingly as soon as he is made aware of it.
But while that openness has earned him credit with journalists, not everyone thinks putting himself front-and-center — and delivering some eyebrow-raising lines while he’s at it — is a great idea.
“[Yousaf] thinks he has the political skills to smooth things out but with every DING! of his hammer he’s slowly creating a wreck,” Blair McDougall, the former boss of the No campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, wrote on his Substack.
Here are seven things you probably didn’t expect to hear from a nation’s first minister.
King of the understatement
Scots got a taste of what was to come from their new first minister when he faced questions about former SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell’s arrest while on a visit to a GP surgery.
Appearing in front of a poster of a laughing teenager, Yousaf admitted the arrest was … “not great” for the SNP. You can say that again.
No one told me we had no auditors!
Bit awkward this one. The firm that audits the SNP’s accounts resigned more than six months ago — and the party’s leadership at the time were unable to replace them.
But it seems no one told Yousaf about this even as he became leader — something the increasingly-stressed first minister told the media about.
“They resigned last year, I think it was in and about October last year,” he told journalists at an event in Leith, Edinburgh.
More understatement followed: “It’s certainly problematic, I won’t deny that at all.”
I would expect to know things, yes
“You would expect to know, I would have imagined, about most of that,” Yousaf told STV, when asked if he was surprised to have been kept in the dark about the party’s finances and lack of auditors.
He added, with (you guessed it) another hint of understatement, that the party should have “done more about transparency.”
Of course I’m surprised
The beleaguered first minister’s big reset speech in the Scottish parliament was somewhat overshadowed by … the arrest of the party’s treasurer just hours earlier.
Taking questions from a pack of reporters before his speech, Yousaf admitted his shock. “Of course I’m surprised when one of my colleagues has been arrested,” he said, in a line for the ages.
The SNP? Not criminal, mate
“I don’t believe it is,” a thrown-off Yousaf said when asked in the same media huddle whether he could guarantee the SNP isn’t currently operating in a criminal way.
The question lingered — leading to him, while on a visit to London Monday, telling STV: “I don’t believe the SNP is operating in a criminal way.” Always good to know!
Definitely not bankrupt … but we do owe Peter
“We’re definitely not facing bankruptcy,” Yousaf confidently declared after his weekly first minister’s questions knockabout was overshadowed by continuing scrutiny of the party’s finances.
However, Yousaf did admit “there is money still outstanding to Peter Murrell” — the ex-chief executive (and husband of Sturgeon) who loaned the SNP more than £100,000 of his own money back in 2021. Murrell was arrested and released pending further police investigation.
Mo burners, no problem
Amid news reports about officers investigating the party’s use of “burner” mobile phones — prepaid devices designed for private or temporary use — Yousaf argued not all burner phones are created equal.
“It depends on your definition, of what you mean by a burner phone,” he said, arguing some activists might use the devices — made famous by drug dealers in U.S. drama The Wire — during election campaigns.
