Half of Scots say Humza Yousaf doing bad job, poll finds

Half of Scots believe Humza Yousaf is doing a bad job as first minister, a YouGov poll has found.

Only 23 per cent of those polled believe he is performing well as he marked 100 days in office.

But opinion of Yousaf’s performance fares slightly better than Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with 59 per cent of people saying Sunak was doing a bad job and 22 per cent a good job.

Support for Scottish independence has fallen to 37 per cent, excluding don't knows, compared to 46 per cent who opposed it.

The poll, conducted in the last week of June, comes after several weeks of turmoil for both the SNP and the Scottish Government.

Former leader Nicola Sturgeon, former chief executive Peter Murrell and former treasurer Colin Beattie have all been arrested for questioning and released without charge in relation to an ongoing Police Scotland investigation into the party’s finances.

According to the poll, 48 per cent of people believed Yousaf was doing a bad job on matters relating to that investigation.

Meanwhile, his government had to delay the rollout of the Deposit Return Scheme, scrap plans for controversial Highly Protected Marine Areas, and admit one of the two delayed and overbudget CalMac ferries may face further delays.

Asked about specific policy areas, voters felt Yousaf was performing particularly poorly on health and the economy, with 56 and 55 per cent saying he’d done a bad job on those, respectively.

And on climate change, 44 per cent of people felt he was doing a bad job compared to 20 per cent who felt he was doing well.