Humza Yousaf: Police investigation has impacted public trust in SNP

The First Minister admits his SNP government has had ‘failures’ and has made ‘mistakes’

First Minister Humza Yousaf admits the police investigation into SNP finances has “clearly” impacted on the public’s perception and dwindling trust in the party.

He also admitted the SNP government had made “failures” and “mistakes”, saying his party needed to be upfront about where it had not stepped up.

Operation Branchform, the police investigation into party finances, has plagued Mr Yousaf’s time as SNP leader.

First Minister Humza Yousaf. Image: Andy Buchanan/Press Association.

In the past year former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, former chief executive Peter Murrell and former treasurer Colin Beattie were all arrested as part of this investigation into what £600,000 of donations have been spent on. All three were later released without charge.

Speaking to Political Thinking with Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4, Mr Yousaf said: “The police investigation has been one of the most difficult times for the party. There’s no ifs or buts or maybes about it.

“There has clearly been an impact in terms of how we were perceived by the public and issues of trust, and I’ve got to work hard. I hope I’ve been doing [that] over the last ten months.

“I’ve got to work hard to make sure that people know, whatever the outcome of that police investigation is, that the SNP is a party that they can trust. But it’s been difficult, no doubt for those involved – but difficult for us as a party and certainly been a challenge for me in my first ten months.”

Mr Yousaf said he had “never really been comfortable” with the party having the word “national” in its name as it can be misinterpreted.

During his interview, the First Minister also admitted his SNP government has had “failures” and made “mistakes”.

Mr Yousaf said: “We haven’t achieved everything we’ve wanted to achieve. Where we’ve had failures though, where we’ve not stepped up to the mark, we’ve been upfront about that and we endeavour to learn from that and lessons from that.

“Some of those are due to funding decisions and cuts that are made for Westminster, some of them are wholly our mistakes. We will own them, hold our hands up and make sure we deliver better.”

The biggest challenge for Mr Yousaf and the SNP in 2024 will be the coming general election. The party has been slipping in the polls and is likely to be neck-and-neck with Labour when it comes to winning Scottish seats.

The first major poll of the year, conducted by YouGov, predicted the SNP would remain the biggest party in Scotland, but would drop from 43 seats to just 25.

Mr Yousaf was asked on the radio programme what he would say to UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, and the First Minister said he needed to “show backbone”.

He said: “Why are you not coming forward with a bold and radical plan? This is exactly the time to do it.

“You know you’re going to be the next prime minister, and instead what we see is this triangulation of policies with the Conservatives and the only policy of difference that I’ve seen from Keir Starmer is a green prosperity fund.

“And now even that has gone from being a plan to being an ambition or confident ambition, and beginning to roll back. I’m very willing, as First Minister of Scotland, to work with a UK Labour government in order in the best interest of Scotland.

“Of course, I’ll continue to push for the powers of a second referendum, that goes almost without saying. But in terms of unleashing Scotland’s potential in renewables, I would also work with Labour to lift the two-child limit, for example, across the United Kingdom, so that we can work together, but [a message] to Keir Starmer – show backbone.

“Be bold, be radical. Don’t dump all your policies and that is what the country is looking for.”