Yousaf has to handle a multi-faceted SNP strategy and speak to two different audiences

Party’s new leader must win back voters but also broaden support for Scottish independence, a key contradiction

• Scottish council tax to be frozen next year, Humza Yousaf tells SNP conference

It was a defining image of the Scottish National party’s 2023 conference – the wall of reporters raising dictaphones, cameras and mic booms aloft while delegates broke into whoops and applause to greet the figure sweeping down the main staircase like a movie star.

The only problem was that this beloved figure wasn’t the current leader, Humza Yousaf, but his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon. The reaction of delegates who crowded round for hugs and selfies was testament to the enduring esteem in which she’s still held.