SNP leadership candidate Humza Yousaf grilled on gay marriage

SNP leadership frontrunner Humza Yousaf is grilled on gay marriage and religion after fellow candidate Kate Forbes lost support for saying her Christian faith means she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman

• Hamza Yousaf is seen as the continuity candidate to succeed Nicola Sturgeon
• His rival Kate Forbes has lost support after voicing her views on gay marriage

The Muslim politician tipped to become the next SNP leader admitted yesterday that his religion also opposes gay marriage.

But Humza Yousaf promised Islam would not influence his policies if he became first minister and insisted that he ‘celebrated diversity’.

The Scottish health secretary’s comments came after early leadership front runner Kate Forbes lost support for saying her Christian faith means she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman and that having babies out of wedlock is wrong.

Asked about her comments on Times Radio, Mr Yousaf said: ‘I couldn’t come on your programme and tell you that I’m able to change what Islam says about gay marriage, or gay sex or what the mainstream Islamic view is.

‘I would be lying to your viewers if I said … everybody will know what the position on mainstream Islam in that respect is. But the question is, do people use the basis of their faith as legislating? I haven’t done so, I wouldn’t do so because I don’t believe that’s the job of legislators or policymakers.

Humza Yousaf promised Islam would not influence his policies if he became first minister and insisted that he ‘celebrated diversity’. Pictured: Mr Yousaf speaks during Portfolio Questions in the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, February 22, 2023

Early leadership front runner Kate Forbes (pictured) lost support for saying her Christian faith means she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman

‘I believe in a Scotland that celebrates differences, celebrates diversity, celebrates equality.

‘I’ve been a minority my whole life in this country, I know that my rights are interdependent on everybody else’s rights. You begin to chip away or regress people’s rights, then you do that to my rights too. So I’m somebody who very firmly believes in progression and my track record and supporting issues of equality, including issues that affect our LGBT community are well known.’

In an interview with Channel 4 News, Mr Yousaf described himself as a practising Muslim and said he would soon be observing Ramadan, but insisted he personally supported gay marriage. Critics have pointed out, however, that he missed the key vote in the Scottish parliament on the legalisation of gay marriage in 2014.

Seen as the continuity candidate to succeed Nicola Sturgeon, Mr Yousaf backed her decision to defend the plan to allow people to ‘self-identify’ as the opposite sex.

He said the Scottish government should go to court to challenge Downing Street’s unprecedented decision to veto the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

‘Whether you disagree with the GRR Bill or not, whether you agree with the substance or not is in some respects immaterial,’ he added.

‘It’s the principle of, do we cave in the first time the UK Government wields the red pin. And if we cave in, what kind of message does that send to the UK Government?’ Meanwhile, Ms Forbes, a member of the Free Church of Scotland, has been criticised by a fellow SNP member for referring to transgender rapist Isla Bryson as a man.

Stewart Duncan said the finance secretary should be ‘suspended from the party following her openly transphobic conduct and deliberate misgendering of Isla Bryson’ in a TV interview.

Seen as the continuity candidate to succeed Nicola Sturgeon (left), Mr Yousaf (right) backed her decision to defend the plan to allow people to ‘self-identify’ as the opposite sex

Mr Yousaf has now become the bookies’ favourite to lead his party and government as the continuity candidate to Ms Sturgeon (pictured)

Bookies’ favourite is 37-year-old continuity candidate to Sturgeon

He was elected to Holyrood aged only 26, taking his oath first in English and then in Urdu to honour his Pakistani heritage.

Just a year later Humza Yousaf became the youngest person appointed to the Scottish government as well as its first minister from an ethnic minority.

By that age he had already worked as an assistant to a string of top Scottish National Party figures, including then-first minister Alex Salmond and his successor Nicola Sturgeon, after attending a private school then studying politics at Glasgow University.

Still just 37, Mr Yousaf has now become the bookies’ favourite to lead his party and government as the continuity candidate to Ms Sturgeon. But his rapid rise to power has not gone entirely smoothly. In 2016 he was fined £300 after being caught by police driving a friend’s car without insurance. Mr Yousaf blamed the break-up of his first marriage for the error. Adding to his embarrassment, he was transport minister at the time.

Mr Yousaf and his second wife Nadia El-Nakla later became embroiled in a bitter racism row with a nursery.

After being told there was no space for the couple’s daughter at Little Scholars in Broughty Ferry near Dundee, Ms El-Nakla and a friend put in fake applications for children with ‘white-sounding names’. While a watchdog told the nursery to change its procedures, earlier this month Ms El-Nakla dropped her legal action against it.

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