If it wasn’t for bad luck, Humza Yousaf would have no luck. After hobbling over
the line in a brutal SNP leadership election, his tenure was instantly plunged
into chaos by a police probe into the party’s finances.
Now a nightmare poll suggests he is unpopular with both SNP voters and the
general public, and that the party is losing support among those in favour of
independence. Before Sturgeon quit, three-quarters of independence
supporters planned to vote SNP, a figure which is now below two-thirds.
Yousaf’s net favourability (29 per cent) is the same as Rishi Sunak’s, while his
net unfavourability (41 per cent) is just two points behind that of Scottish
Tory leader Douglas Ross.
The poll was commissioned by Scottish public affairs consultancy True North.
Rather awkwardly, True North is headed up by Fergus Mutch, Sturgeon’s
former chief spin doctor, and Geoff Aberdein, who was chief of staff to Alex
Salmond. Appearing today on the Holyrood Sources podcast of which
Aberdein is co-host, Professor Sir John Curtice gave a bracing assessment of
Yousaf’s polling performance:
"The SNP is losing the support of people who believe in
independence. The truth is that we are looking at a situation where a political
institution is in trouble, even though the cause for which it’s in favour isn’t in
trouble… Whatever was Nicola Sturgeon’s intention in resigning as leader she
has created a sequence of events whereby support for the SNP has gone
down."
Sir John Added
"In electing Humza Yousaf the SNP have created political
difficulties for themselves. For good or ill Mr Yousaf is not popular not just
within the wider Scottish public but the supporters. Only 45 per cent of 2019
SNP voters say they think favourably of him and this echoed what the opinion
polls were saying during the course of the leadership contest itself."
If Kate Forbes is working to bring down Humza Yousaf, she’s not doing half as
good a job as Humza Yousaf himself.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/...ousaf-already/