Humza Yousaf’s worst political scandals in 10 years at Holyrood

SNP leadership candidate Humza Yousaf asks Ukrainian women ‘where are all the men?’

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Today the SNP’s secretary, Lorna Finn, announced that Humza Yousaf has been elected the SNP’s next leader, succeeding Nicola Sturgeon as party leader. After receiving 52.1 percent of the vote, Mr Yousaf told 300 people at Edinburgh rugby stadium Murrayfield he feels like the “luckiest man in the world” to be the leader of the SNP, a party he joined 20 years ago and “loves so dearly”. Yousaf beat his colleagues Ash Regan and Kate Forbes whom he congratulated on “putting in a good shift”. Here, Express.co.uk takes a look at some of the blips that have speckled his career thus far.

In 2016, Mr Yousaf — then the Minister for Transport — was hit with a £300 fine and six penalty points after he was caught driving a friend’s car without insurance during a routine check.

The new leader said it was a “genuine mistake”, adding that the mix-up was due to the recent split with his first wife, the former SNP worker Gail Lythgoe.

The then 31-year-old had thought he was insured to drive a colleague’s car but his policy update did not cover him, leaving him “mortified” when the police revealed that he was not insured.

He told the Sun: “I will put my hands up. It’s entirely my mistake and whatever the fiscal says I will agree to… I hope people will understand that this is a genuine mistake that happened during a difficult period in my life.”

Mesh campaigners who are seeking a review of products criticised Mr Yousaf earlier this year.

They claim that he has refused to meet them over the past two years as they say using mesh products in procedures has left them with chronic pain and disabilities.

Campaigner Roseanna Clarkin, 39, of the Scottish Global Mesh Alliance, said the former Health Secretary had been “ignoring” those affected by mesh procedures.

She told the Daily Record in January: “The Health Secretary has not been willing to meet with us and that says it all. It’s ignorance at its best…

“However, since Humza Yousaf became Health Secretary in May 2021, I’ve never had a meeting. We have been trying to have a face-to-face meeting with him for nearly two years so we can properly explain how mesh has affected us, how dangerous it really is and why it needs to be suspended.”

As health secretary, Mr Yousaf has faced criticism multiple times. Less than a month into the job, he was forced to apologise after he claimed that young children had been hospitalised “because of” Covid-19, a statement that was deemed “appallingly misleading”.

In response, he tweeted: “My main message was to urge caution, not to cause any undue alarm, I regret if that was the case,” Mr Yousaf tweeted on Friday.”

In summer 2021, he was criticised by Conservatives for taking his then 12-year-old daughter to the Harry Potter studio. He was criticised for “unbelievable and terrible judgement” for visiting the Warner Bros exhibition when Covid-19 cases were on the rise.

However, he hit back at the critics — particularly the Tories — stating that the “most important job” he has is being a good father, step-father and husband.

He added: “Your shadow public health minister [Sandesh Gulhane] was at HP World at the same time as me, we bumped into each other [and] said ‘hello’.”

Later that year, he urged the public to “think twice” about ringing 999, advising that they only ring when “absolutely critical” in an interview with BBC Radio Scotland.

He added: “I don’t doubt that people do that because they are in distressing situations, I think most people only call when they are in that extreme distress… of course make that call and the ambulance service will get to you as quickly as they possibly can.”

However, he was dubbed “reckless” and said to be taking a “huge gamble” with people’s lives by those in opposition.

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More recently, Mr Yousaf came under fire again after meeting with a group of Ukrainian women and asking “where are all the men?”

In the video, the women can be heard saying “they stay in Ukraine” but Mr Yousaf told the BBC that a few Ukrainian men were in the building, adding that they did not appear to take offence.

He was accused of showing a “serious lack of judgement” after he forgot that many of the women’s husbands would still be in Ukraine, fighting against Russia.

Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy slammed the new leader’s embarrassing blunder caught on camera during an Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain held in Edinburgh.

Mr Hoy said: “This was a toe-curlingly crass comment from Humza Yousaf. Assuming he’s aware that there’s a war on in Ukraine, we can only assume it was a misguided attempt at humour.

“This was at best highly insensitive, at worst downright offensive – and it points to a serious lack of judgment.”

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