Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O’Flynn

Humza Yousaf could save the Union

(Credit: Getty images)

At the heart of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation statement there came a moment of self-awareness that one does not often encounter among those at the top of the political tree.

While Sturgeon insisted that there was majority support in Scotland for independence, she acknowledged that it needed to grow further in order to prevail. ‘To achieve that, we must reach across the divide in Scottish politics. And my judgment now is that a new leader will be better able to do this,’ she said.

So it is bizarre that less than a fortnight later the bookies’ odds point to SNP members leaning to the view that the person they should turn to is Humza Yousaf, a middle-wit purveyor of boilerplate nationalist soundbites and opinion.

The Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross was able to eviscerate Yousaf’s record in office in the Scottish parliament this week, claiming that in a rational world the Health and Social Care Secretary would be getting sacked rather than ‘failing upwards’.

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