Iain Macwhirter Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf’s attempts to woo Scottish business have fallen flat

(Photo by Fraser Bremner - Pool/Getty Images)

The latest shock to hit the nationalist blogosphere is the revelation that the First Minister Humza Yousaf has recently broken bread with the billionaire Sir Brian Souter, the Stagecoach bus magnate. The encounter took place at a prayer breakfast last month and is regarded by some as a sign that Yousaf is trying to build bridges with the business community.

No one knows what transpired in Yousaf’s meeting with the independence-supporting philanthropist. It may simply have been an attempt by the First Minister, a practising Muslim, to show his ecumenicism. Souter, after all, attends the evangelical Church of the Nazarene in his home town of Perth. However, there may also have been a more pecuniary motivation for the head-to-head.

Souter used to be one of the SNP’s biggest donors, contributing at least £1 million to SNP coffers before 2014, at which point Nicola Sturgeon became leader.

Written by
Iain Macwhirter

Iain Macwhirter is a former BBC TV presenter and was political commentator for The Herald between 1999 and 2022. He is an author of Road to Referendum and Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won a Referendum but Lost Scotland.

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