[Jimbuna]

Humza Yousaf: I've never been comfortable with 'national' in SNP name

SNP leader Humza Yousaf has said he has "never been comfortable" with having "national" in his party's name.

Appearing on the BBC's Political Thinking podcast, Yousaf was asked about the associations with the word 'nationalism'.

The first minister said the SNP's name could be "misinterpreted" by others.

Host Nick Robinson said: "Here in Scotland, the idea of being a nationalist is not a phrase that often people in the SNP like, but it's something of pride. It's pride in identity and pride in country. It's a belief in self-government, escaping from being ruled from outside. And yet in most of the parts of the world nationalism is often seen in a very different way as kind of hostile to others, aggressive."

Yousaf responded: "I've never really been comfortable with the fact that we have national in our party's name, not because I think the founding members of the SNP had any far-right inclination - they certainly didn't - or a nationalist inclination, the way that you express it there, but because it can be misinterpreted.

"But we are the Scottish National Party - we have a very strong brand, a very strong identity.

"We've worked really hard to make it really clear. It is now well understood that we're a civic national party, we're a party that believes it doesn't matter really where you come from, what's important is where are we going together, and there's no doubt about our politics being very rooted in the left and the centre left of our political discourse."
https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,h...al-in-snp-name