Humza Yousaf

Humza Yousaf

Humza Haroon Yousaf (born 7 April 1985) is a Scottish politician serving as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 27 March 2023. He is set to become first minister of Scotland, after a vote in the Scottish Parliament on the following day. Having served as the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care since 2021, and as the Cabinet Secretary for Justice from 2018 to 2021, Yousaf was the first South Asian and first Muslim cabinet secretary to serve in the Scottish Government. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he has been the member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow Pollok constituency since 2016, having previously represented the Glasgow region from 2011 to 2016. Born and raised by Pakistani immigrants in Glasgow, Yousaf studied politics at the University of Glasgow, before working as a parliamentary assistant for Bashir Ahmad, the first Muslim elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2007. Ahmad died of a heart attack two years later and Yousaf went on to work as parliamentary assistants for Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. Prior to his election to parliament in 2011, he worked in the SNP's HQ as a communications officer. Appointed as a junior minister under Salmond in 2012, Yousaf served as the minister for external affairs and international development until 2014. After Sturgeon became First Minister in 2014, he was appointed Europe minister before being appointed minister for transport and the islands in 2016. As part of cabinet reshuffle of Sturgeon's second government in 2018, she promoted him to cabinet as the justice secretary. Yousaf introduced the controversial hate crime bill and presided over falling crime rates. In 2021, he was appointed the health secretary during the later phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and was resp

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