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Opinion
Merryn Somerset Webb

Scotland's New First Minister Inherits Sturgeon’s Lousy Legacy

Humza Yousaf is not a popular man. The government he takes over isn’t very popular either. 

Scotland's Health Minister and SNP MSP Humza Yousaf speaks after being elected as new SNP party leader.

Scotland's Health Minister and SNP MSP Humza Yousaf speaks after being elected as new SNP party leader.

Photographer: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Europe

Humza Yousaf is not a popular man. He might have won the final vote to be the new First Minister of Scotland, but only 50,000 people actually voted in the election, and of those, only 24,000 voted for him as their favorite — that’s less than one-third of the Scottish National Party’s 72,000 members. Not a great start.

And for all the relentless hyping up of Nicola Sturgeon’s long reign, the government he inherits isn’t very popular either. The latest Scottish Political Pulse survey from Ipsos shows that 50% of Scots think that “generally speaking things in Scotland are headed in the wrong direction.” Only 25% think it is headed in the right direction, the rest don’t know. That number rises slightly for SNP voters — to 37% — but even that is down from 44% earlier in the year.