Scotland’s new leader reflects the diversifying ranks of U.K. politics

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Humza Yousaf didn’t take long to address the milestone he’d reached after winning the contest to become Scotland’s leader. But it was as much a cultural as political one.

“We should all take pride in the fact that today we have sent a clear message, that your color of skin, your faith, is not a barrier to leading the country we all call home,” Yousaf said in his first speech as head of the Scottish National Party on Monday. He thanked his grandparents for moving from the Punjab region in India and Pakistan to Scotland more than 60 years ago.

When he is formally appointed as Scotland’s first minister on Tuesday, the 37-year-old Yousaf will become the first Muslim and ethnic minority to run the country’s semiautonomous administration since its incarnation more than two decades ago, as well as the youngest. It also means that three of the U.K.’s top positions are held by men who are people of color, joining Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

After Nicola Sturgeon’s abrupt resignation last month, Yousaf, the under-fire health secretary at the time, emerged as one of the main contenders for the position, along with Finance Secretary Kate Forbes.

Yousaf became a member of the Scottish Parliament in 2011, and his rise to power comes at a time of increasing political participation for ethnic minorities across the U.K. When Maria Sobolewska, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester, first started researching the issue in 2002, there were around a dozen members of the U.K. Parliament who were ethnic minorities. That number more than quintupled by 2019.

“It’s really not been that long ago that we hardly ever saw ethnic minority people in politics at all,” said Sobolewska. Now there are not only more people from such backgrounds in public service, they also represent a wider a range of political parties, she said.

Indeed, the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, is also Muslim. His father, Mohammad Sarwar, emigrated from Pakistan and in 1997 became the first Muslim MP in the U.K., representing a district in the city of Glasgow.

Yousaf is also from Glasgow. His father emigrated from Pakistan with his parents in the 1960s, and worked as an accountant while his mother was born in Kenya and is of South Asian descent. He’s not shied away from his background, including during his swearing in ceremony to become an MSP, which he declared in Urdu.

“He isn’t a minority politician who is ashamed of being minoritized,” said Nasar Meer, a professor at Edinburgh University. “It’s a generational change amongst minoritized electoral candidates who are confident about being vocal on injustice.” Yousaf has also spoken about the racism he has encountered in politics and his concerns about young people facing such abuse.

When Yousaf was Scotland’s justice secretary, he led a review into existing legislation that consolidated hate crime bills. This created a new offense of “stirring up hatred” on grounds such as religion and disability.

But greater representation of ethnic minorities doesn’t always translate into policies which protect their interests, said Bridget Byrne, a researcher who like Sobolewska is also at the University of Manchester.

“The election of ethnic minority leaders shows some limited signs of change and may have symbolic power,” she said. “But for ethnic minority communities, it is clearly not on its own sufficient. As many of the current policies pursued by the Conservative government indicate, the leadership of Rishi Sunak does not necessarily ensure that their interests are being represented more strongly.”

Yousaf faces a tough challenge to heal division in Scotland over seeking independence from the U.K. The country remains broadly split on the issue, with support dipping during what was a fractious SNP leadership campaign. Forbes hit out at him over his record in office in charge of transportation, justice and health.

He first, though, must unite his party. Early in the six-week race to replace Sturgeon, a dividing line was drawn over LGBTQ rights and Scotland’s gender recognition reform bill, which the U.K. government blocked in January. Forbes, 32, a conservative Christian, said she would have voted against the law and also is opposed to same-sex marriage.

Yousaf said that he doesn’t use his faith ” as a basis for legislation,” and would challenge the U.K. government’s decision to overturn the bill, although he has since said he wouldn’t go to court if legal advice believed the Scottish government would lose the case.

When challenged over why he didn’t vote on legalizing same-sex marriage in 2014, he said he was away on business, telling Sky News he would have backed it had he been in parliament.

In his victory speech in Edinburgh on Monday, Yousaf stated his mission was to bring the party and country together, tackle the cost-of-living crisis and continue what the SNP calls its progressive agenda.

“From the Punjab to our Parliament, this is a journey over generations that reminds us that we should celebrate migrants who contribute so much to our country,” Yousaf said. “It’s what drives my commitment to equality that will underpin my actions as first minister.”