SNP leadership race: Three-time failure Humza Yousaf as First Minister? Scotland deserves better than this – Ian Murray

When Nicola Sturgeon stood down just over a week ago, even in her worst nightmares she couldn’t have foreseen the chaos of the SNP leadership election to replace her.

A party once famed for its internal discipline is in open warfare. Briefings and counter-briefings, public spats between MPs, and reverse ferrets by MSPs. It’s quite astonishing, as Kate Forbes has said herself, that those who shared ministerial office with her for so many years didn’t know about her strongly held views.

Or, more likely, they did, but they hoped she wouldn’t remind people during the contest. All the media focus has inevitably been on Forbes, while Humza Yousaf has emerged as the frontrunner. But I’m deeply concerned that this media attention means that Yousaf’s record in high office is not being scrutinised.

The people deserve to know how he performed in charge of several portfolios if he is to become the next First Minister. So let’s check his record… His first proper ministerial job was in the transport department. On his watch, the term ‘ScotFail’ became synonymous with the disastrous ScotRail service, which saw passengers endure endless delays and overcrowding, while trains routinely skipped stations. Verdict: Fail.

Next up was a promotion to Justice Secretary, despite his catastrophic handling of a junior portfolio. This period included warnings that police stations were falling apart due to years of SNP under-investment. Not true, Yousaf insisted. But just hours – literally – after claiming that criticism of Police Scotland’s buildings conditions was “hyperbole”, the ceiling in Broughty Ferry police station collapsed. Verdict: Fail.

Fast forward to today and Yousaf is now Health Secretary, and widely considered the worst performer in that post since the dawn of devolution. Record A&E waiting times, record drug deaths, and record NHS vacancies. And today, an Audit Scotland will lay bare the shambolic state of our treasured NHS. It highlights astronomical waiting times and a litany of missed targets, causing misery for patients and anguish for over-stretched staff. Verdict: Fail.

The Chris Grayling of Scottish politics. Yet, bafflingly, the SNP establishment is now manoeuvring in an attempt to ensure Yousaf fails upwards into the top job in government.

We haven’t heard a great deal from Ash Regan yet, although that won’t surprise my constituents in Edinburgh who she represents in Holyrood. She has done nothing to address the local issues such as the GP crisis in south-east Edinburgh. But after years of silence, she now wants to be First Minister?

Humza Yousaf appears to be leading the race to replace Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and First Minister (Picture: Fraser Bremner/pool/Getty Images)

There is one thing that unites all three candidates for First Minister of course: a belief that independence should be prioritised ahead of the NHS, energy bills, or any other vital topic. None of them are suggesting they will govern for the whole of Scotland; just the minority who support separation. And that should concern us all.

One thing is clear: the people of Edinburgh and Scotland deserve better than any of the candidates putting themselves forward. So in the weeks ahead, while the nationalists turn on themselves, in Scottish Labour we’ll continue to put forward a vision for the whole country, so that we deliver the change Scotland needs.

Oh, and I need that new GP practice for my constituents, whoever is the new First Minister.

Ian Murray MP is Labour MP for Edinburgh South