Yousaf's a busted political flush with nothing left up his sleeve, writes EUAN MCCOLM

Little more than a year after becoming First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf clings desperately to power. 

The SNP’s opponents at Holyrood scent blood and have launched motions of no confidence in Mr Yousaf and his government. 

Meanwhile, senior figures in the First Minister’s party are, this weekend, searching for a candidate who might succeed him.

Make no mistake, Mr Yousaf is now a busted political flush.

His inept handling of the removal of the Greens from government has left him with nowhere to turn. Mr Yousaf is a political laughing stock, a leader without a shred of authority or credibility.

And so we should expect, sooner rather than later, a new SNP leader.

Speculation surrounds a number of senior party figures. 

There’s a suggestion that Westminster leader Stephen Flynn might bid for the job and appoint a deputy to handle First Ministerial duties until he is able to move to Holyrood. 

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth and former finance secretary Kate Forbes are also seen as potential candidates.

Perhaps I may be so bold as to offer all who wish to succeed Humza Yousaf a small piece of advice: please stop treating Scots with contempt.

This, I’m afraid, is something neither Nicola Sturgeon nor Humza Yousaf could manage.

In the near-decade since the independence referendum, the SNP has utterly failed the people of Scotland. 

Despite voters having made their position perfectly clear, Ms Sturgeon was almost pathologically unable to accept reality.

Despite polls showing majority support for the maintenance of the Union, she continued to insist there was a public appetite for a second referendum.

And while Ms Sturgeon treated the majority who did not support her separatist project with contempt, she was equally disdainful of her own supporters. 

She took them for fools, repeatedly promising them a referendum she had absolutely no power to deliver.

When Ms Sturgeon said she was stepping down as SNP leader, she conceded that she had become a divisive figure. 

Mr Yousaf should have paid close attention to this rare moment of self-examination.

The things that made Ms Sturgeon such a polarising figure were her policy obsessions. 

Not only was her monomania on the independence question a huge turn off, but her insistence on pushing ahead with unpopular policies, such as reform of the Gender Recognition Act, set her at odds with many voters.

Ms Sturgeon and her loyal lieutenants dismissed the concerns of feminists who pointed out that reform could undermine the right to establish single-sex spaces, such as refuges.

And they ignored mounting evidence that the prescription of so called ‘puberty blockers’ to young people was not safe. 

So the first tests for Mr Yousaf when he became First Minister last March were not especially challenging. 

What he had to do was stop insisting a second referendum was imminent and make clear that, when it came to the health of children and young people, he preferred the advice of medical experts over that of trans-rights ideologues.

Pitifully, Mr Yousaf could not clear these low bars. Not only did he declare his intention to be ‘First Activist’, he also pursued a costly (and futile) legal challenge to the decision by Scottish Secretary Alister Jack to block Holyrood’s flawed reform of the Gender Recognition Act, on the basis it would negatively impact on the UK-wide Equality Act.

In the midst of a cost of living crisis, with voters crying out for improvements to an ailing NHS and action to halt sliding standards in schools, Mr Yousaf preferred to play to the actvist gallery, putting the wishes of a noisy few before the needs of the frustrated majority.

Perhaps the most extraordinary example of his remarkable inability to understand the feelings of voters came when then Health Secretary Michael Matheson was plunged into an expenses scandal last year.

When it emerged Mr Matheson had claimed £11,000 for data run up during a family holiday to Morocco, he first insisted all costs had been incurred while he performed constituency work.

Mr Yousaf accepted this most unlikely story without question. And then continued to defend Mr Matheson as his story fell apart. 

Rather than sacking his health secretary, Mr Yousaf sang his praises, even when it became clear he had lied about his expenses claim.

Mr Matheson should never have been allowed to cling on for so long. It was perfectly clear to voters that he should go long before Mr Yousaf reached the same conclusion.

In recent weeks, the First Minister has repeated that feat of defending the indefensible.

When the leading paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass published her review of NHS services for gender-confused young people in England, it made for disturbing reading. 

Dr Cass concluded that ideologues had been allowed to influence clinical practice.

She also shattered the lie that ‘puberty blockers’ are safe and reversible, making clear the science behind their use was wholly inadequate.

That was the point at which serious politicians should have insisted her findings spark complete reform of the way the Scottish NHS treats young people with gender dysphoria.

Instead, Patrick Harvie and other Greens sought to undermine the review, citing criticisms (almost entirely from activist ideologues) as reason to doubt its value.

Rather than slap Mr Harvie down, Mr Yousaf brushed off his shocking remarks.

The Scottish Greens are now revelling in the spotlight. There’s talk of them backing the vote of no confidence in the Government unless Mr Yousaf is replaced by a candidate of whom they approve.

The next SNP leader should have the guts to ignore threats from their party’s former partners. The Scottish Greens are firmly on the crank wing of modern politics. 

Their opposition to economic growth and support for the medicalisation of confused children marks them out as outsiders whose views may be dismissed.

If Humza Yousaf’s successor wishes to slow the SNP’s slide, they will stop pandering to oddballs and obsessives and start showing the people of Scotland a little respect.