Humza Yousaf has been sworn in as Scotland’s sixth Prime Minister, with a majority of 71 votes out of 128 cast in Parliament.
According to the Xinhua news agency, the 37-year-old is Scotland’s youngest-ever leader of government, the first from an ethnic minority background, and the first Muslim to lead a major UK party.
Yousaf’s Deputy First Minister will be Shona Robison, the current Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice.
On Wednesday, he will be sworn in as President.
He takes over for Nicola Sturgeon, who resigned previous month.
After more than eight years in government, Sturgeon formally stood down as Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister on Tuesday morning.
She was also the position’s first female occupant.
Following the vote on Tuesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called Yousaf to congratulate him, reports the BBC.
He said he wanted to continue “working constructively with the Scottish government” to deliver on what he argued were the “people’s priorities across Scotland, including the need to half inflation, delivering growth, and cut waiting times.”
Yousaf has promised to advocate for another referendum on Scottish independence, claiming that when Scotland is independent, the government’s policies would be implemented more successfully.
In his victory address, he promised to make Scotland “fairer and wealthier.”
After winning the leadership election on Monday, he became the leader of Scotland’s dominant party, the Scottish National Party.
