Humza Yousaf faces huge challenges as the new SNP leader

Having styled himself as the continuity candidate, the leadership contest has highlighted how much needs to change inside the party

After a bracingly close result that raises fundamental questions about the core priorities of the wider party membership, Humza Yousaf begins his tenure as the Scottish National party’s first ethnic minority leader and soon to be first Muslim first minister of Scotland with a distinct set of challenges.

Immediately after the leadership announcement, there was evident relief particularly from those younger, progressive activists who had dreaded the success of the socially and fiscally conservative Kate Forbes. Campaign groups such as Back Off Scotland, which presses for protest-free buffer zones outside abortion clinics, tweeted their approval.