umza Yousaf is one of Britain’s most pivotal politicians. As First Minister of Scotland, how he leads in the coming months will have a very real impact on the independence issue. And that has ramifications beyond the future of the union with England and the make-up of Britain, to a potential acceleration of other global secession movements. The road ahead is bumpy. He took over in March after his predecessor and mentor Nicola Sturgeon left in a hurry. The day before her resignation, 14 February, Yousaf, then Scotland’s health secretary, had no idea of what was to come. At around 9.45pm that night, he says, “I got a call from Nicola, and she tells me she’s going to resign the next day. I was shocked.” He won the run-off election, beating former finance minister Kate Forbes by 52%/48%, to become the first Muslim child of immigrants to be leader of a UK nation. “It is absolutely a vindication of the immigrant’s story. For those people who say that multiculturalism has failed I
