Humza Yousaf’s appointment as first minister of Scotland is a historic second for the UK. It signifies that, for the primary time in historical past, the nation has a Hindu prime minister in Westminster (Rishi Sunak) and a Muslim first minister in Scotland.
In his victory speech, Yousaf mentioned:
We ought to all take satisfaction in the truth that in the present day we’ve got despatched a transparent message, that your color of pores and skin, your religion, isn’t a barrier to main the nation all of us name dwelling.
On the face of it, these two males, whose households got here to the UK as immigrants on the lookout for a greater life, embody the dream that, by exhausting work, immigrants and their youngsters could make it to the highest of society.
Similar tales are enjoying out elsewhere on the prime degree of British politics, too. Scotland’s predominant opposition social gathering Labour is led by Anas Sawar, a person who can also be of Pakistani Muslim heritage, as is Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London. The Westminster cupboard additionally has unprecedented ethnic variety.
Many of those politicians are the youngsters and grandchildren of immigrants who got here to the UK within the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, financial migrants from former colonies like India, Pakistan and the nations of east Africa and the Caribbean, who got here with little cash and restricted English language. This first wave of postcolonial migrants usually labored within the nice British industries, in factories and in mills, settling in massive city and cities.
Scotland is the one western European nation to have a Muslim chief. The UK can also be now led by the youngsters and grandchildren of individuals from its previously colonised nations. The second is monumental. The UK, Scotland and certainly Ireland are all led by individuals from the south Asian diaspora.
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It issues that Rishi Sunak has change into the UK’s first prime minister of Indian descent
Both Yousaf and Sunak have credited their grandparents and fogeys for his or her work ethic, which they are saying has enabled them to maneuver up Britain’s social and political hierarchy. It’s an inspiring story however maybe one they need to each replicate on now they’re in energy. It is probably more durable for arrivals in in the present day’s Britain to copy this journey.
The final stress check awaits
Though Yousaf has said he’s a practising Muslim, he’s additionally clear that he doesn’t consider that legislators needs to be led by religion of their decision-making. That mentioned, at an occasion we organised on the Scottish Parliament on Muslims and the political course of in Scotland when Yousaf first turned an MSP, he revealed that his religion had been a part of his motivation for entering into politics within the first place.
His political awakening had taken place a decade earlier within the aftermath of the 9/11 assaults within the United States. As he sat watching the pictures of the Twin Towers with classmates, they turned to ask him why Muslims hated America. That, he states, is when he realised politics mattered.
Yousaf’s religion and ethnicity had beforehand been not often commented on in Scottish politics. Indeed, it’s uncommon to listen to him described as a “Muslim minister” or “British Asian MSP”. The similar applies to others who’ve preceded or adopted him and is a measure of how far the UK has come as regards to minorities in public life.
During the SNP management contest, nevertheless, Yousaf’s absence from a vote on equal marriage for same-sex {couples} was questioned and linked to his religion and standing within the Glasgow Pakistani neighborhood. The allegation was that he didn’t wish to vote in favour of this laws for worry of alienating that neighborhood.
A spokesperson for Yousaf’s marketing campaign responded by saying that he “unequivocally helps equal marriage” and that his absence from the vote was as a result of “a particularly vital engagement which concerned making an attempt to safe the discharge of a Scottish nationwide sentenced to loss of life for blasphemy in Pakistan”.
It is vital to notice that neither Yousaf or Sunak have but confronted the actual stress check. They each turned leaders on the again of a closed social gathering choice course of so haven’t but needed to stand as a pacesetter in a public election.
That would be the actual measure of how accepting the broader British public is of the altering face of nationwide politics. It stays to be seen whether or not their ethnicity turns into an element within the public debate round their politics.
Both Yousaf and Sunak appear eager to maintain their religion within the personal sphere, which is anticipated in British politics. Former prime minister Tony Blair’s crew famously lived by the mantra “We don’t do God” when it got here to avoiding discussions about his Christianity.
The class caveat
Yousaf’s politics couldn’t be extra completely different from Sunak’s. He is firmly left of centre on immigration, welfare and taxation. This reminds us that the ethnic minority political id isn’t uniform, though for years events on the left took the minority vote without any consideration.
Today ethnic, spiritual and cultural variety is mirrored throughout the political spectrum. It is feasible to succeed in the highest no matter your political id.
But it needs to be famous that much less has modified on the subject of instructional and social background. Yousaf’s father was an accountant. Sunak the son of a health care provider and a pharmacist. Both males went to non-public faculty. They have been a part of a era of immigrants who have been in a position to come to the UK and make a greater life for themselves.
Politics continues to be dominated by the privately educated. Class is the true divide in British politics, no matter color rosette a candidate wears.
This article has been up to date to replicate that the UK isn’t the one Western democracy to be led by the descendants of previously colonised individuals.
Parveen Akhtar has beforehand obtained funding from the ESRC and the British Academy.
Timothy Peace has obtained funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE).
