FIRST Minister Humza Yousaf has accused former home secretary Suella Braverman of “pulling up the ladder” after her because of her opposition to immigration and multiculturalism.
The SNP leader said she was the “very definition” of a person of colour seeking to deny others the opportunities afforded to them.
Speaking on the podcast Pod Save the UK, Yousaf was asked about Braverman’s past remarks that multiculturalism had “failed” and her opposition to immigration, despite both her parents immigrating to the UK before she was born.
Host Nish Kumar (below) asked: “How do you reckon with a political figure like Suella Braverman?
Yousaf replied: “I think it’s the very definition or personification of somebody pulling up the ladder after they’ve made it to the top and actually my view’s always been that you should reach your hand out, try to bring others with you.
“That’s my responsibility to do, I don’t want to be the last person of colour in this role by any stretch […] We want to see others that are minorities make their way to the highest levels of political office.”
Recorded on the day Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (above) was fiercely rebuked for making a jibe about transgender people in the Commons as the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey looked on from the public gallery, Yousaf also accused the Tories of “debasing and degrading our politics”.
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He said: “I think what worries me about the political rhetoric from the likes of Suella Braverman and others, and we saw it today with the Prime Minister, is really debasing and degrading our politics by getting into these real culture war issues as a complete distraction from the actual issues of substance.”
And he hit out at the Tories, blaming them for the country being “incapable” of “having a sensible conversation” about the benefits of migration.
Yousaf said: “So whether it’s trans rights, whether it’s of course multiculturalism, whether its issues around migration and immigration, where all the evidence tells you […] that migrants give more than they take and yet we can’t seem in this country capable of having a sensible conversation that says, ‘Well we have this many work vacancies, job vacancies, we need to grow our economy, migrants give more than they take, let’s have a sensible approach to migration that helps our economic growth, helps our society and our culture as well’.
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“And we’re just incapable of it because of this debasing and denigration of politics, which I’m afraid the Conservatives are the cheerleaders of.”
It is not the first time Braverman has been accused of pulling the ladder up after her.
Speaking to TalkTV last year, Bishop of Dover Rose Hudson-Wilkin, was asked about Braverman’s comments about migration. She said: “We’re actually in place that so many of our political leaders who are children of immigrant parents, they wouldn't be there, and they wouldn't have the success stories that we see today.
“So I think there's a huge responsibility that because we have climbed up the ladder, we need to be careful we don't take the ladder away.”
Braverman was approached for comment.
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