Humza Yousaf feels ‘powerless’ to protect family members trapped in Gaza – and he’s ‘angry’ at UK foreign secretary

As first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf sets many of the rules by which millions of Scots live their lives.

But when I interviewed him in Glasgow on Friday ahead of the Scottish National Party’s annual conference, what I saw before me was a husband and father who felt “powerless” to protect his family.

There were of course questions about the SNP’s dire polling; their by-election defeat to a resurgent Labour Party; the defection of an SNP Westminster MP to the Conservatives this week; Mr Yousaf’s divisive – and shifting – independence plan; and the drag anchor former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest and wider police investigation into the SNP was having on the party.

But the primary concern for the first minister when we met in Glasgow was for the safety of his wife Nadia’s parents, her brother and his children, trapped in Gaza and fearful for their lives.

Follow live: Gazans told ‘go south if you want to live’

That morning, Mr Yousaf shared a tearful video of his mother-in-law Elizabeth El-Nakla, in which she spoke of the Gazans’ plight as Israel warned one million people to vacate the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

“Everybody from Gaza is moving towards where we are. One million people, no food, no water. Where are you going to put them?” she asked.

“Where is humanity? Where’s people’s hearts in this world, to let his happen in this day and age? May God help us. Goodbye.”

Mr Yousaf’s interview round with news outlets ahead of the conference is interrupted by phone calls with his family.

The first minister hasn’t slept and is tearful in our interview when he talks of how his wife and daughters are dealing with the situation.

He tells me he has promised his four-year daughter that her grandmother will be home for Halloween to paint her face as she does every year, even though he knows it’s a promise he might not be able to keep.

He says he’s shared the video because he feels “powerless and helpless”. “The only thing I can do is share their story,” he says/

To that end, the media round before the SNP conference has become far less about Scottish politics and far more about global matters.

The first minister tells me that he is publicising the plight of his own family to try to help all those trapped in Gaza as he demands Israel open up humanitarian corridors “immediately”.

“[It’s an] appeal to the international community, to set up international corridors, to end collective punishment, to allow supplies to come in, to allow the innocent people of Gaza to come out. That’s all I can do,” he said.

“What cannot happen, regardless of [Israel’s] military tactic, is for innocent men, women and children to pay the price. What has to happen now, immediately, today is the opening up of a humanitarian corridor.

“The humanitarian corridor has to allow Gazans, innocent men, women and children to leave and has to allow supplies, medical supplies, food, fuel, clear drinking water to come in.”

“Collective punishment cannot be justified. Neither legally or morally can it be justified.”

The first minister hasn’t heard from the prime minister, while the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly hasn’t responded to a letter from Mr Yousaf about the situation of his family and other Scots.

Mr Yousaf says it makes him “angry” and “disappointed” that he hasn’t been afforded that from a foreign secretary who visited Israel just this week.

Undoubtedly and understandably, Mr Yousaf goes into the SNP party conference almost completely preoccupied by his family’s predicament.

But when delegates gather in Aberdeen this weekend, there will be plenty of discussion too about Mr Yousaf’s first six months and the dire polling the party is enduring.

The last time there was a UK general election, Ms Sturgeon’s SNP was polling 45% and Labour was back in third at 18%.

Now the SNP is on 32% to 34%, with its lead down to 2 to 3% over Labour.

Meanwhile, the party is divided over what its independence strategy should be.

Ms Sturgeon’s position was that if the SNP achieved more than 50% of the votes in the Westminster elections, the SNP would have a mandate for another independence referendum (how she’d get the UK government on board is another matter).

Mr Yousaf’s attempt to lower the bar and claim a mandate if the SNP win the most seats in Scotland at the next general election is now looking dubious, with suggestions this week at conference that the leader might switch to saying the SNP must win a “majority” – 29 plus seats – to claim a mandate.

Read more:
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Britain, France and the deep roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Whichever way, the idea that the first minister can claim his party is in a position to open formal independence negotiations should they lose 20 seats in a general election (the party currently has 48 MPs), seems ludicrous (he strongly disagreed with me when I put that to him).

Poor polling, a defection, an independence plan undecided and going nowhere, after six months in the job, Mr Yousaf must make progress to move beyond probation with his party.

But for now, the personal has to come first and Mr Yousaf will be hoping next week his political family will rally behind him.