"a continuation of these Islamophobic attacks."
Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf has responded to claims there was a conflict of interest over a £250,000 Scottish government donation to an aid agency working in Gaza.
Mr Yousaf’s in-laws were among millions under siege in Gaza.
On March 9, 2024, Mr Yousaf condemned the claims and said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) played no part in securing their release.
He said their freedom was down to “the hard work of the crisis team” at the foreign office and “to suggest otherwise is a flat-out lie and smear”.
The Telegraph had reported that Mr Yousaf was being accused of ignoring officials, who had advised him to give UNICEF between £100,000 and £200,000.
Mr Yousaf allegedly told advisers he was about to meet UNWRA delegates in Edinburgh and therefore, “we should just announce an extra £250k to them”.
He said the claims were “outrageous”.
The UNRWA donation was announced by officials at Holyrood in response to a flash appeal for emergency aid as he met officials from the organisation on November 2, 2023.
At the time, over a million Palestinians in Gaza faced displacement amid the conflict with Israel.
On X, the first minister said he did not usually respond to “smears” but felt he had to address it, writing:
“Most of my political life, I’ve battled insinuations from sections of the media desperate to link me to terrorism despite campaigning my whole life against it.
“The latest smear from The Telegraph is just a continuation of these Islamophobic attacks.”
?I don't usually respond to smears against me or my family, but this story is so outrageous it requires a response.
Most of my political life, I've battled insinuations from sections of the media desperate to link me to terrorism despite campaigning my whole life against it. pic.twitter.com/KjF2gzFmve
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) March 9, 2024
Another post read: “To peddle far-right conspiracies in a newspaper is outrageous and will only encourage a further pile-on of vile abuse my family and I have suffered.
“Due to my faith and race, there will always be those, particularly on the far right, who will desperately try to ‘prove’ my loyalties lie elsewhere.
“That I am a fifth columnist in the only country I call home, the country I love and the country I have the privilege of leading.”
He said the Scottish government donated to Gaza relief “like virtually every government in the West”.
According to Conservative MSP Stephen Kerr said Humza Yousaf had “some serious explaining to do” and “may very well have broken the (Scottish ministerial) code”.
However, a spokesperson for Mr Yousaf dismissed that as a regurgitation of “far-right conspiracy theories to be found online”.
“UNRWA had no role in the situation regarding the first minister’s extended family and any suggestion of a conflict of interest in this matter would be completely untrue, and simply a regurgitation of ludicrous far-right conspiracy theories to be found online.”
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