Humza Yousaf’s parents-in-law were put on ‘priority list’ for Gaza evacuation after staff lobbied Foreign Office
September 28, 2024
Humza Yousaf’s parents-in-law were put on ‘priority list’ for Gaza evacuation after staff lobbied Foreign Office
by abz_eng
15 comments
Don’t blame him tbh.
I will happily blame him though, but my heart won’t be in it.
And after he redirected aid from other countries to Gaza. It looks very much like he paid a ransom.
Shocked. Shocked, I say!
As an individual what he did was understandable but as a politician bound by the rules and as First Minister it was reprehensible.
Exploiting your power to avoid rules and regulations that bind everybody else is not what politicians should be, for all that they all do it. Lobbying in Scotland has effectively been normalised by making it public and calling it fixed, so it’s no surprise that’s what he rushed to do. But that doesn’t make it right for him to have done it
Ken it shouldn’t be but it’s hard to criticise really. What the fuck would any of us do if it was our family. Hand on heart I can say if I was in a position of power I could and would 100% turn down thousands in clothes and holidays but if my family were caught in a warzone?
It’s probably a diplomatic priority to make sure families of leaders are protected, yours wouldn’t be so useful.
id do the same
>An FCDO spokesman said: “No preferential treatment was given to the former first minister or his family. FCDO Ministers spoke with him at the time to update him on the conflict in the Middle East. As part of these wider conversations, they discussed his family’s personal circumstances”.
>They added that consular support was provided to all British nationals seeking to leave Gaza at the time, and that priority was given to the vulnerable, including the elderly.
Same paper continued to defend Boris Johnson intervening to save a bunch of dogs in Afghanistan, after mrs Johnson latest pet obsession.
His in-laws should not have been there in the first place. They wilfully ignored Foreign Office guidance and then had strings pulled to get them out.
Yes, yes, yes – I know – they have family there but those are the breaks sometimes. Ask those with UK or US passports who have family back in Iran whether paying a visit to see cousins and grandparents would be a wise move.
From the article.
>The cache of correspondence, seen by The Telegraph, reveals the extent to which members of Mr Yousaf’s private office assisted him in lobbying for his relatives’ release.
>Their efforts resulted in Mr Yousaf securing an “urgent” call with Lord Ahmed, the then Middle East minister, on Oct 10 “to discuss the ongoing situation in Israel/Gaza, specifically with regards to his parents-in-law”, the documents show.
Then later-
>A Scottish Government spokesman said that the suggestion Mr Yousaf secured preferential treatment for his relatives is “completely untrue”.
>They said: “The former first minister consistently sought assurances that the UK Government was doing everything it could to ensure the safety of all British citizens in Gaza.
These things are mutually exclusive.
If the Telegraph is telling the truth then the SG is lying to cover for Yousaf.
Yousaf, Matheson, Murrell, Sturgeon.
A concerning pattern.
I dare anyone to tell me they would’ve done any different if they had family in Palestine
I would imagine that due to his senior position that, had the family been captured they could have been used as a way of controlling or influencing government.
In this sense I’m not surprised the UK foreign office took this approach.
I’m not subscriber, but I’m curious about the comments on the telegraph site. There are over a hundred. Can anyone read them for me?
And if Keir’s were put on a priority list they’d be flown out on a leer jet.
15 comments
Don’t blame him tbh.
I will happily blame him though, but my heart won’t be in it.
And after he redirected aid from other countries to Gaza. It looks very much like he paid a ransom.
Shocked. Shocked, I say!
As an individual what he did was understandable but as a politician bound by the rules and as First Minister it was reprehensible.
Exploiting your power to avoid rules and regulations that bind everybody else is not what politicians should be, for all that they all do it. Lobbying in Scotland has effectively been normalised by making it public and calling it fixed, so it’s no surprise that’s what he rushed to do. But that doesn’t make it right for him to have done it
Ken it shouldn’t be but it’s hard to criticise really. What the fuck would any of us do if it was our family. Hand on heart I can say if I was in a position of power I could and would 100% turn down thousands in clothes and holidays but if my family were caught in a warzone?
It’s probably a diplomatic priority to make sure families of leaders are protected, yours wouldn’t be so useful.
id do the same
>An FCDO spokesman said: “No preferential treatment was given to the former first minister or his family. FCDO Ministers spoke with him at the time to update him on the conflict in the Middle East. As part of these wider conversations, they discussed his family’s personal circumstances”.
>They added that consular support was provided to all British nationals seeking to leave Gaza at the time, and that priority was given to the vulnerable, including the elderly.
Same paper continued to defend Boris Johnson intervening to save a bunch of dogs in Afghanistan, after mrs Johnson latest pet obsession.
His in-laws should not have been there in the first place. They wilfully ignored Foreign Office guidance and then had strings pulled to get them out.
Yes, yes, yes – I know – they have family there but those are the breaks sometimes. Ask those with UK or US passports who have family back in Iran whether paying a visit to see cousins and grandparents would be a wise move.
From the article.
>The cache of correspondence, seen by The Telegraph, reveals the extent to which members of Mr Yousaf’s private office assisted him in lobbying for his relatives’ release.
>Their efforts resulted in Mr Yousaf securing an “urgent” call with Lord Ahmed, the then Middle East minister, on Oct 10 “to discuss the ongoing situation in Israel/Gaza, specifically with regards to his parents-in-law”, the documents show.
Then later-
>A Scottish Government spokesman said that the suggestion Mr Yousaf secured preferential treatment for his relatives is “completely untrue”.
>They said: “The former first minister consistently sought assurances that the UK Government was doing everything it could to ensure the safety of all British citizens in Gaza.
These things are mutually exclusive.
If the Telegraph is telling the truth then the SG is lying to cover for Yousaf.
Yousaf, Matheson, Murrell, Sturgeon.
A concerning pattern.
I dare anyone to tell me they would’ve done any different if they had family in Palestine
I would imagine that due to his senior position that, had the family been captured they could have been used as a way of controlling or influencing government.
In this sense I’m not surprised the UK foreign office took this approach.
I’m not subscriber, but I’m curious about the comments on the telegraph site. There are over a hundred. Can anyone read them for me?
And if Keir’s were put on a priority list they’d be flown out on a leer jet.