Dale speaks to political editor Alistair Grant about former First Minister, Humza Yousaf's decision to not stand at the 2026 Holyrood election
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's daily video bulletin for this Tuesday.
00:04My name is Dale Miller.
00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our political editor, Alistair Grant.
00:12And Alistair, it's one of your stories leading the front page of the Scotsman today.
00:17Our watchdog, this is the Scottish Information Commissioner blasting SNP ministers in a secrecy
00:24row.
00:25It relates to an inquiry into the conduct of Nicola Sturgeon from a couple of years
00:29ago linked to the Alex Salmond affair.
00:32She was ultimately cleared of breaching the ministerial code, but the SIC, well, this
00:38is effectively the second statement where David Hamilton has taken a swipe at the Scottish
00:44government, which took the commissioner's office to court, lost that battle, will have
00:50to pay back at least £30,000 as part of the process.
00:55He is unhappy with the way it's handled with some pretty strongly worded language.
01:01In that piece, you can read the story at scotsman.com and continues to raise questions about just
01:08how open the Scottish government has been throughout the process.
01:12Alistair, you're on not necessarily to talk about that story though, but around some further
01:18developments today in Scottish politics.
01:20We're meant to be winding down, it feels like Christmas is around the corner, but we're
01:25not.
01:26Scottish politics never sleeps.
01:27And there's a big announcement from Humza this morning.
01:30Yeah, so Humza Yousaf, the former first minister, has announced that he will not be standing
01:35again as an MSP in 2026.
01:37I think this was quite widely anticipated that he probably would make this decision
01:42and choose to step back from frontline politics, but I think actually allies around him have
01:48been pushing back quite strongly when journalists have put this to him and his team previously.
01:53But he's now announced it, he's confirmed it, as I say, not unexpected.
01:57He was obviously Scotland's second shortest serving first minister, stood down earlier
02:02this year after choosing to end the Bute House agreement with the Scottish Greens, which
02:07led to the collapse of the Scottish government, really led to Humza Yousaf having to resign
02:13as first minister because he didn't have the support in parliament to continue.
02:18I think probably if you look at his legacy, it's probably quite a complicated one in some
02:22ways in the sense that he is a pioneering figure.
02:26He was the first first minister of colour.
02:28He was the first Muslim leader of a Western democratic nation.
02:33Those are achievements that he can look back on.
02:36I think he was quite widely liked as a kind of in terms of personal figure across the
02:42parliament, but he probably didn't achieve all that much or certainly not as much as
02:47he would ever have wanted to in his time as first minister.
02:49It was cut short.
02:50I think ultimately he'll be remembered for that pretty disastrous decision to end the
02:55cooperation agreement between the SNP and the Greens, or at least his disastrous handling
03:00of it, which led to him having to resign.
03:04I remember covering that story and it was just over a weekend.
03:07There was just incredible developments every day.
03:10So I think that's probably what he'll be remembered for.
03:13And it's also worth thinking about the fact that his entire time as first minister was
03:17basically overshadowed by the kind of ongoing mess in the SNP.
03:22He was only in the job for, I think, really a matter of days before the police
03:28investigation into the SNP's funding and finances exploded into the headlines.
03:31We had those extraordinary scenes of the police raiding Nicola Sturgeon's house that
03:37she shares for husband Peter Murrell, that blue tent outside their house, I'm sure
03:41people will remember. And then a couple of months later, we had Nicola Sturgeon's
03:46arrest and obviously later released without charge.
03:49So his entire time as first minister was really kind of governed by events outside of
03:54his control. And there was stuff that even hangovers from the Nicola Sturgeon
03:58administration, like people might remember the plans for highly protected marine areas,
04:02the deposit return scheme, all these things that weren't necessarily haunted use of
04:06policies, but he ended up having to kind of deal with and became kind of associated with
04:10in some ways. So, yeah, I think he will be able to look back on some achievements, but
04:16I'm sure he'll have plenty of frustrations as well.
04:20Fair to say it was always going to be difficult, perhaps, for whoever took over from
04:24Nicola Sturgeon. Now we see the SNP improving slightly in the polls in recent weeks
04:29under John Swinney, sort of adding to that picture of a difficult tenure for him.
04:34We know, Alistair, that John Swinney said he plans to lead the party into the 2026
04:39election. Is there any sort of changing in the guard happening leading into 2026, do you
04:45think? Because we're widely expecting to hear a decision from Nicola Sturgeon over
04:50coming months as well, and many anticipate she might not run again as well.
04:55Yeah, I think we'll have a series of announcements.
04:57Nicola Sturgeon is obviously the big one, widely expected to also stand down in 2026.
05:02You'll have that sense that there's some of those politicians, I mean, Nicola Sturgeon's
05:05one of them, they've been there since the dawn of the revolution, they've been there
05:08since 1999 and are now kind of coming to the end of their time, or the expected end of
05:13their time in Parliament.
05:15And so I think that's one to look for.
05:17And John Swinney obviously will remain in place until after that election.
05:21He said he will, and I can't see that changing any time soon.
05:25But, you know, there is this sense of the kind of old guard of Scottish politics.
05:31These people that have been around since Holyrood started are starting to trickle out
05:36now. And I think that will bring a lot of changes.
05:39And I think when we look to the 2026 election, there'll be lots of new blood coming
05:44in. I mean, one of the things I thought was quite funny that Humza Yousaf said is that
05:46he was stepping back to make way for a new generation of MSPs.
05:51I mean, Humza Yousaf is only 39, so he's not old by any stretch of the imagination.
05:57I mean, John Swinney is 60.
05:59So it's just it's quite a funny thought that a 39 year old basically feels that they're
06:03now, you know, their time is over in politics.
06:05But I'm sure he'll feel that he's got plenty to contribute elsewhere.
06:09He was certainly on an accelerated path getting to become first minister at quite a young
06:15age. And maybe it reflects the pace, perhaps, at which that transition happened
06:20for him. Alice, just on the something else, it's sort of tied into the same subject, but
06:26we ran an exclusive interview with Stephen Flynn on the weekend with some comments just
06:31him readdressing and saying he was going to wait until the New Year, effectively, have a
06:37couple of beers over Christmas and think about is he running for Holyrood, just Holyrood,
06:42or is he going to stay with Westminster?
06:43But there's a vote taking place today that may make it definitive about holding two
06:49jobs. Yeah, MSPs expected to vote later on today to ban double jobbing.
06:54That's MPs also sitting as MSPs and also peers in the House of Lords.
07:00It'll stop them also being MSPs.
07:02And this has been a running issue in Holyrood for a number of years, but it became a
07:08big deal because Stephen Flynn announced his intention to run for Holyrood while remaining
07:12an MP. That sparked a backlash within the SNP.
07:16There's lots of unhappiness about it.
07:18I think the way he went about it actually was what really annoyed people.
07:21And there's a sense that he was kind of arrogant, I suppose, but he is, you know, he's
07:26apologised for that. He's said that he's kind of reconsidering that plan.
07:30But this would basically be the definitive banning of double jobbing.
07:35And the expectation is if MSPs vote for it today, which they're widely expected to
07:39because the Scottish government also backs these plans, that this would come into force
07:44before or in time for the 2026 election.
07:48So it's just kind of providing clarity, I guess, on exactly where we stand on this issue.
07:52And it's worth saying that I think both the Welsh Parliament and the Norman Irish
07:57Assembly ban double jobbing.
07:59So Holyrood is actually the outlier here in still allowing it.
08:03And I mean, it has been high profile figures that have held roles in both parliaments
08:07before, Alex Salmond being one of them, John Swinney very, very briefly at the kind of
08:11dawn of devolution, Douglas Ross, famously the Scottish Tory leader, who was
08:16criticised for it by the SNP, which made Stephen Flynn's move even more potentially
08:21hypocritical. But yeah, I think that there's definitely a feeling in parliament that being
08:26an MSP is a full time job and you're there to represent your constituents.
08:31And it shouldn't really be the case that you can hold a job in another parliament as
08:35well. Even if you're representing the same constituency, there's a kind of feeling that
08:39being an MSP should be enough in and of itself.
08:42And I think that's a feeling that's shared quite widely across the political parties.
08:46You'll be able to read about the outcome of that vote as well as Humza Yousaf's reasons
08:51for not standing for 2026 at Scotsman.com throughout today.
08:57Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Blue Sky and go out and pick up a copy of
09:02the paper tomorrow for all the latest.
09:04Thank you, Alastair, and thanks, everyone, for joining us.