Scotland set to appoint first Muslim leader Humza Yousaf

KUALA LUMPUR – With Britain appointing its first Hindu prime minister, Rishi Sunak, last year, Scotland is now set to have a Muslim as its First Minister.

According to reports, the country’s Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has won the Scottish National Party leadership contest and is set to replace Nicola Sturgeon.

According to CNN, the 37-year-old won 52% of votes in the recent party polls after pledging to seek Scottish independence, tackle rising costs of living, and to rejoin the European Union, among others.

“I will be a First Minister for all of Scotland. I will work every minute of every day to earn and to re-earn your respect and your trust,” Humza said in his acceptance speech.

“My immediate priority will be to continue to protect every Scot as far as we possibly can from the harm inflicted by the cost-of-living crisis, to recover and reform our NHS and other vital public services, (and) to support our well-being economy to improve the life chances of people right across this country.” 

Humza’s victory in the polls comes after a five-week-long battle with contestants Ash Regan and Kate Forbes, following Sturgeon’s resignation announcement in February this year.

Per a BBC report, Scottish opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer, of the Labour party, congratulated Humza on the victory, calling the appointment of a first First Minister of an ethnic minority background “a significant moment for Scotland”.

Another report by The Independent noted that Humza is the son of immigrants who moved to Glasgow in the 1960s. His father is from Pakistan while his mother was born into a South Asian family in Kenya.

Humza, who studied politics at the University of Glasgow, told a press conference in February that his grandfather came to Scotland from a small Pakistani town in the sixties, with little command of the English language.

After becoming the first Muslim to be appointed to the Scottish administration in 2012, Humza has also served as the country’s transport minister and international development minister before he became health secretary in 2021, The Independent reported. – The Vibes, March 27, 2023