Humza Yousaf responds to Elon Musk 'blatant racist' attack with Still Game GIF tweet on X

The First Minister has responded to X chief executive Elon Musk with a satirical tweet referencing cult Scottish comedy Still Game

Humza Yousaf referenced Scottish cult comedy Still Game as he responded to an attack in which X chief executive Elon Musk branded the First Minister as a “blatant racist”.

Musk had taken aim at the First Minister on his own X platform, after a clip of Mr Yousaf’s address to the Scottish Parliament in the wake of global protests following George Floyd’s murder was re-circulated online.

In response to the post, made by an account named ‘End Wokeness’, Mr Musk wrote: “What a blatant racist!”

As of Friday morning, the post had been seen by more than 500,000 accounts.

In the speech, Mr Yousaf, who was in the role of justice secretary at the time, listed examples showing the lack of non-white people in senior positions.

He said: "We have to accept the reality and the evidence that is in front of us, that Scotland has a problem of structural racism.”

Following Musk’s tweet, Mr Yousaf posted on Friday morning, saying: “Racists foaming at the mouth at my very existence.”

Humza Yousaf has now responded to the initial tweet from X chief executive Elon Musk

His tweet then said ‘Me’ before displaying a GIF from cult Scottish comedy Still Game showing the programme’s shopkeeper Navid Harrid, played by Sanjeev Kohli, dancing behind the counter.

Musk – the world’s richest person and Tesla boss – has 161 million followers on X.

The exchange comes as industry experts said Musk’s first year in charge of X, formerly known as Twitter, “couldn’t have gone any worse” and has been “hugely damaging”.

October 27 marks the first anniversary of the billionaire’s $44 billion (£36bn) takeover of the social media giant.

In the emotional speech in 2020 that sparked Mr Musk’s inflammatory post, the now First Minister recited the final words of Mr Floyd before his death while being restrained by police officer Derek Chauvin. Those words were captured on video and sparked worldwide protests calling for racial equality.

Mr Yousaf went on to highlight the people he dealt with on a daily basis in his portfolio were all white.

Reciting the names of the heads of the legal profession, the courts and the police in Scotland at the time, Mr Yousaf punctuated them with the word “white”, before moving on to the medical profession, trade unions and directors general of the Scottish Government.

He concluded by saying: “That is not good enough.”

The original post that Mr Musk replied to was made by a prominent right-wing account that has 1.5 million followers and said: “Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf openly despises white people.

“Why would Scotland’s Parliament and King select a guy who hates almost 100% of the country?”

A spokesman for the First Minister said: “The First Minister has been on the receiving end of racist hate, abuse and death threats his entire life, and has stood firm against hatred and bigotry, of any kind, throughout.

“Sadly, much of the racist abuse and threats of violence the First Minister faces are directed his way on X – formerly known as Twitter.

“Mr Musk should use his position to tackle racism and hatred that goes unchecked on the social media platform he owns.”