Humza Yousaf

Humza Haroon Yousaf (born 7 April 1985) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from March 2023 to May 2024. He served under his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon as justice secretary from 2018 to 2021 and then as health secretary from 2021 to 2023. He served as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Pollok from 2016 to 2026, having previously been a regional MSP for Glasgow from 2011 to 2016.

Born to Pakistani immigrants in Glasgow, Yousaf studied politics at the University of Glasgow, before working as a parliamentary assistant for Bashir Ahmad, the first Muslim and the first second-generation immigrant elected to the Scottish Parliament. Following Ahmad's death in 2009, Yousaf went on to work as a parliamentary assistant for both Alex Salmond and Sturgeon. Prior to his election at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, he worked in the SNP's party headquarters as a communications officer. Appointed as a junior minister under Salmond in 2012, Yousaf served as Minister for External Affairs and International Development until 2014.

Yousaf supported Sturgeon's successful leadership bid in 2014 and after she was sworn in as first minister, he was subsequently appointed as Europe minister before being appointed Minister for Transport and the Islands in 2016. As part of a cabinet reshuffle of Sturgeon's second ministry in 2018, Yousaf was promoted to the cabinet as justice secretary. He introduced a controversial hate-speech bill to parliament which ultimately became law as the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. In 2021, he was appointed health secretary during the later phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and was responsible for the NHS's recovery, as well as the mass roll-out of the vaccination programme which began under his predecessor.