Humza Yousaf: Former First Minister of Scotland, Author and Career Explained

Introduction

Humza Yousaf is the former First Minister of Scotland, who led the country from March 2023 to May 2024, and the author of the memoir Under Fire: My Family’s Escape from Gaza and The Cost of Leadership, published in October 2026. He was the first Muslim leader of a Western European country, and the first First Minister from a minority ethnic background in Scotland’s history. He stood down as a member of the Scottish Parliament in May 2026, after fifteen years on the front line of Scottish politics, and he now works in public speaking, advising on climate change and teaching.

Yousaf’s premiership lasted just over a year, and it ended abruptly, after he terminated the SNP’s power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens and then faced a vote of no confidence he could not survive. But the story that has defined his post-political life is older and more personal: the four weeks in October 2023 when his wife’s parents were trapped in Gaza, while he, as First Minister, tried to secure their safe passage home to Scotland. That experience is the subject of his memoir, and it is the lens through which he now explains what leadership cost him.

Quick Bio

From Glasgow to the cabinet table

Yousaf was born in Glasgow in 1985, the son of immigrants, and studied politics at the University of Glasgow. He worked in the Scottish Parliament and for the SNP before being elected himself, first as a regional MSP for Glasgow in 2011 and then, from 2016, as MSP for Glasgow Pollok, a seat he held until he stood down in 2026.

His ministerial rise was fast. He became Minister for External Affairs and International Development in 2012, then Minister for Transport and the Islands, and in 2018 he became Cabinet Secretary for Justice, the youngest person to hold a Scottish cabinet post at the time. In 2021 he moved to health, becoming Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in the middle of the pandemic’s aftermath, a brief that put him at the centre of the Scottish Government’s most difficult decisions on waiting times, staffing and recovery.

That breadth — foreign affairs, transport, justice, health — made him the obvious continuity candidate when Nicola Sturgeon resigned in February 2023. He won the SNP leadership election that spring, defeating Kate Forbes and Ash Regan, and became First Minister on 29 March 2023. He was 38, and he spoke openly about what his election meant: a Scotland in which the son of immigrants, a Muslim, could lead the government. He was also, from the start, a First Minister without a majority, dependent on the Bute House Agreement with the Greens that Sturgeon had negotiated.

First Minister, 2023–2024

Yousaf’s government inherited Sturgeon’s priorities and her problems: the aftermath of the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and a constitutional strategy that had run into the Supreme Court’s ruling that Holyrood could not hold an independence referendum without Westminster’s consent. In 2023 his government abandoned legally binding climate targets, a decision that damaged its relationship with the Greens and with climate campaigners, and that foreshadowed the break to come.

The defining episode of his premiership, however, was not a policy but a family crisis. In October 2023, days after the Hamas attacks of 7 October and the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza, Yousaf learned that his wife’s parents, who had been visiting family in Gaza, were trapped there. For four weeks he led the Scottish Government while trying, through every channel available to him, to secure their passage through the Rafah crossing. He was the first Western leader to demand a ceasefire, days into the war, and he spoke publicly about the anguish of watching his family suffer while holding the highest office in Scotland. His wife’s parents eventually reached safety, but the experience, by his own account, changed his understanding of power: the most powerful politician in Scotland could not protect his own family.

In April 2024 Yousaf ended the Bute House Agreement with the Greens, after the row over the abandoned climate targets, and the Greens withdrew their support. Facing votes of no confidence from the Conservatives and Labour, and unable to secure the votes he needed, he resigned as First Minister and SNP leader on 29 April 2024, leaving office on 7 May 2024. John Swinney succeeded him, unopposed, and has led the party ever since.

After Holyrood: memoir and masterclasses

Yousaf announced that he would stand down as an MSP at the 2026 Holyrood election, saying in his resignation letter to Swinney that he was stepping away from politics to focus on family life, and noting, with evident feeling, that since leaving the front benches he had for the first time attended his children’s sports day and parents’ evening. He left Parliament in May 2026, after fifteen years as an MSP.

Before leaving, he had taken on part-time work in public speaking and advising on climate change, and in October 2026 his memoir was published by The Bridge Street Press, under the title Under Fire: My Family’s Escape from Gaza and The Cost of Leadership. The book recounts the four weeks of October 2023, his efforts to secure his family’s passage, and the pressures of leading a country through a period of intense political and social tension. It has been described by the musician Annie Lennox as deeply moving and by the writer William Dalrymple as a brave and moving book of impressive moral clarity, and Yousaf discussed it at the Bradford Literature Festival on 22 October 2026.

In October 2026 Edinburgh University announced that Yousaf would give two masterclasses as part of its Common Ground leadership programme, aimed at helping students robustly debate their beliefs in a political landscape that is deeply polarised and often toxic. He is the first leader to sign up for the programme, and he has said that having spent fifteen years on the front line of Scottish politics, he knows how polarised and toxic public discourse has become.

What competitor biographies get wrong or leave out

1. They still call him First Minister or MSP. Both roles are past: First Minister from March 2023 to May 2024, MSP until May 2026. His current work is writing, speaking and teaching.
2. They treat the memoir as a footnote. Under Fire, published in October 2026, is the fullest account Yousaf has given of the Gaza crisis and of what leadership cost him, and it is central to understanding his post-political career.
3. They miss the Swinney succession. Yousaf’s resignation led directly to John Swinney’s return as SNP leader and First Minister, and the two men’s careers are inseparable from that handover.
4. They invent personal detail. No net worth or salary figure is published here, and family detail beyond what reference sources confirm is omitted.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Humza Yousaf?

Former First Minister of Scotland (March 2023 – May 2024) and former SNP leader, who stood down as an MSP in May 2026 and is now an author and speaker.

What is Humza Yousaf’s book called?

Under Fire: My Family’s Escape from Gaza and The Cost of Leadership, published in October 2026 by The Bridge Street Press.

Why did Humza Yousaf resign as First Minister?

He ended the SNP’s power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens in April 2024 and then resigned, facing votes of no confidence he could not survive, after just over a year in office.

What is Humza Yousaf’s net worth?

No reliable, sourced figure exists in the sources used here, so none is published.

More on Presslix

• Carla Denyer: Bristol Central MP, Former Green Co-Leader and Career Explained
• John Swinney: First Minister of Scotland, SNP Leader and Career Explained
• Presslix Biography
• Nadia El-Nakla: Dundee Councillor, Psychotherapist and Depute Lord Provost Story

Sources and Further Reading

• Humza Yousaf on Wikipedia — career timeline, premiership and resignation
• Glasgow Times — Humza Yousaf to publish ‘deeply personal’ memoir (plain-text source)
• Bradford Literature Festival — Humza Yousaf to discuss autobiography (plain-text source)
• Clacton and Frinton Gazette — Former first minister Humza Yousaf to give university masterclasses (plain-text source)

Note on this article: premiership dates, memoir details and post-parliamentary roles are taken from the sources listed. No net worth or salary figure is claimed because no reliable figure exists in these sources.