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The rise of UK South Asians in politics: is Scotland’s Humza Yousaf next?

  • Humza Yousaf is considered a favourite to win the Scottish National Party leadership contest as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon exits
  • If he wins next week, Yousaf would be the first ethnic minority leader of Scotland and the first Muslim leader of a major UK political party

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Humza Yousaf is eyeing the Scottish National Party’s top job. Photo: AFP
Hilary Clarkein London

Nearly five months since the UK Conservative Party installed multimillionaire Rishi Sunak as the country’s first prime minister of colour, the Scottish National Party (SNP), the ruling party north of England’s border, could also make history in its leadership race.

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Humza Yousaf, 37, the son of South Asian immigrants from Pakistan and Kenya, is considered the favourite to win the March 27 vote of SNP members to replace Nicola Sturgeon, who announced her resignation as party leader and first minister last month.

If Yousaf beats Finance Secretary Kate Forbes and former junior minister Ash Regan in the contest, he would become the first ethnic minority leader of Scotland and the first Muslim leader of a major UK political party.

Yousaf is well-known in Scotland, having already held the Scottish development, justice, transport portfolios.

He is currently the Scottish health minister. When elected to the Scottish parliament in 2016, Yousaf in a tartan kilt took his oath in both English and Urdu, the official language of Pakistan.

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People of South Asian heritage, whose roots can be traced to parts of the old British Empire, have risen in UK political ranks. Their rise coincides with census data that showed Britain was less Christian and white than a decade ago, as Muslim and Hindu populations there grew.
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