Humza Yousaf attended Winnie Ewing’s memorial service at Inverness Cathedral
First Minister Humza Yousaf described Winnie Ewing as a “colossus” saying “there are not many people who could come close, in fact, to matching Winnie Ewing’s service in politics.”
Speaking at her memorial service yesterday at Inverness Cathedral, Mr Yousaf said much could be learned from the huge outpouring of affection and respect for the former Hamilton and then Moray MP and then Highlands and Islands MEP and MSP.
Mr Yousaf in particular underlined how she was able to step across the political divide to achieve change and in doing so won the respect of opponents from across the political spectrum.
“Winnie Ewing was a colossus of our movement. Frankly she's immortalised in our party and in our movement, and in the country,” he said.
“It's great as there are people here from right across the political spectrum. People here who are non-political apolitical and she touched many, many lives whether it's from her time as an MP, as an MEP or as an MSP.
“There are not many people who could come close, in fact, to matching Winnie Ewing’s service in politics."
Mr Yousaf also pointed to how she had a special talent for reaching across the political divide.
He said: “In a time when our politics is probably more divisive and more polarised than it's ever been and more so than any of us would ever like it to be, maybe there is a lesson to take from her ability to reach across the political divide.
“In the days after her passing, the amount of messages that came into the SNP from people from across the political spectrum and indeed from across Europe were really touching, really heart warming.
“So there's definitely a lesson to be learnt, maybe for us to all take a bit of a step back and remind ourselves of how Winnie did politics.
“We are really lucky in the SNP to have some fantastic women who've been integral to our movement and often led our movement and our party as well but we can't be complacent just because we had successes as we did and as Winnie absolutely did and we can't be complacent about that.
“So I've got a job to do, of course, as leader of the party and as First Minister of the country to make sure our politics more broadly represents the diversity in our fantastic country.”