Humza Yousaf has claimed he is not “comfortable” with the name of his own party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Scottish National Party’s leader said the word “national” could be “misinterpreted”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: “I’ve never really been comfortable with the fact that we have national in our party’s name.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yousaf said he doesn’t believe any founding members of the party had any “far right nationalist inclination”, telling the BBC his party had developed a “very strong brand” based on “civic” nationalism”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The First Minister explained: “We’re a party that believes it doesn’t matter really where you come from – what’s important is where are we going together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“And there’s no doubt about our politics being very routed in the left and the centre-left of political discourse.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2017, Yousaf’s predecessor Nicola Sturgeon said she would have changed the name of the party is she could “turn the clock back”, saying that the word “national” can be “hugely problematic”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yousaf also said that the police investigation into the SNP has impacted the party’s reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: “The police investigation has been one of the most difficult times for the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There’s no ifs or buts or maybes about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There has clearly been an impact in terms of how we were perceived by the public and issues of trust and I’ve got to work hard, as I hope I have been doing over the last ten months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’ve got to work hard to make sure that people know, whatever the outcome of that police investigation is, that the SNP is a party that they can trust.”<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Humza Yousaf has claimed he is not “comfortable” with the name of his own party. The Scottish National Party’s leader said the word “national” could be “misinterpreted”. He said: “I’ve … <\/p>\n