HUMZA Yousaf has suggested he is a victim of dirty tricks in the SNP leadership race and that a former cabinet minister has ulterior motives for criticising him. 

The Health Secretary suggested one of his predecessors in the role, Alex Neil, challenged questioned his voting record on gay marriage because he was supporting Kate Forbes.

Mr Neil, who led the equal marriage legislation through Holyrood, last week said Mr Yousaf had missed the key final vote because of “pressure from the mosque”.

Although Mr Yousaf backed the legislation in principle at Stage 1 in November 2013, he was the only minister to miss the crucial Stage 3 vote in February 2014.

This was because he had himself created a diary clash 19 days in advance of the vote by arranging to meet the Pakistan Consul General at the same time.

He later said he had to discuss the case of Mohammad Asghar, a Scot with a history of mental illness, who was on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy.

However Ms Asghar was sentenced to death after Mr Yousaf arranged the meeting with the Consul, meaning he could not have known he was on death row at the time.

Mr Neil has said he vividly remembers Mr Yousaf asking to be allowed to skip the vote because of pressure from religious leaders opposed to the Bill instead.

The meeting with the Consul was arranged as “cover” for his absence, he said, and denied he was coming forward in order to help Ms Forbes's campaign.

The Sunday Mail today quotes two more anonymous cabinet members from the period, who say Mr Neil’s version is accurate, and Mr Yousaf has not been honest about the vote.

READ MORE: Former SNP minister challenges Yousaf's gay marriage vote excuse

Asked today on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show about Mr Neil’s claims, Mr Yousaf claimed he was motivated by his support for Ms Forbes.

Denying Mr Neil’s account, he said: “Alex Neil, I think it's fair to say, is backing another candidate and the fact that this issue has been dragged up nine years on and in the midst of a leadership campaign probably tells you the motivation behind that.

“I've already said very clearly, I voted for the Bill and Stage 1, I would vote for it now. 

“The reason I wasn't there at the Stage 3 vote was because there was an unavoidable meeting with the Pakistani Government, because we were desperately trying to release a Scottish individual who was in jail in Pakistan on blasphemy on death row.”

Asked to confirm he was saying Mr Neil was not telling the truth because he wanted someone else to become first minister, Mr Yousaf said: “I've been very clear in this campaign. I'm not going to sling mud at any SNP or any individuals involved in this contest or people that put their head above the parapet in the SNP. 

“I’ll leave Alex Neil to say what he wants to say.

“I’m saying the context, obviously, for his remarks is that he is supporting, we know, another candidate.

“That is for him to justify why he is saying what he's saying.

“I explained this issue, of course, back in 2014. 

“That explanation seems, by everybody, to have been accepted. 

“And nine years on, in the heat of a selection campaign, people have decided to bring it back to the fore. But my record on equality, whether it's equal marriage, whether it's things like supporting the GRR [Gender Recognition Reform Bill] are well known.”

Asked if he was frustrated that the race had “already got a bit dirty”, the Glasgow Pollok MSP said: “I think it is frustrating. There have been some issues that have dominated, like the ones that we’ve just been discussing.

“I’m not saying these issues aren’t important, but a lot of people want to hear from the candidates what we can do to ease the cost-of-living crisis, what we can do to grow our economy.. .what can the candidates do to further the cause of independence?

“These are some of the issues I hope we will get on to."

READ MORE: Humza Yousaf vehemently denies Alex Neil gay marriage claim

In a dig at Ms Forbes’ opposition to same sex marriage, he added: “I do think it is important that people know whether the person who is going to be not just leader of the SNP, but the First Minister of Scotland, shares the values of the majority of Scotland, but equally will ensure that their rights are not just protected, but where possible advanced.”

Mr Yousaf also said that if he was First Minister he would give small producers an extra year to take part in the deposit return scheme led by Green minister Lorna Slater.

It is due to go live in August, but many small operators fear the extra burdens of the bottle, can and plastic bottle recycling scheme could break them financially.

Ms Forbes is to speak tomorrow at a small brewery in the Highlands, suggesting she too has an eye on changing the DRS, but Mr Yousaf has now got out ahead of her.

He also said his plan to achieve independence was to build popular support for it in the country until it became a political inevitability and Westminster resistance fell away.

Speaking to Sky’s Sophie Ridge Show earlier, he said the “political obstacles” to independence would disappear if there was a sustained majority for it.

He said: “If we build a sustained majority for independence, not where some polls are 51%, some at 49%, but a sustained majority for independence, then those political obstacles will disappear. Independence will become a political inevitability.”

Responding to a Panelbase opinion poll in the Sunday Times, which put satisfaction with his job as Health Secretary at minus 16, he said: “Any health secretary in the midst of a global pandemic is going to face the challenges that we’re facing up here in Scotland.

“In fact, those long waits (in hospitals) are replicated in Conservative-led England or Labour-run Wales. So, those are common problems faced right across the UK.”

He said the health service in Scotland had avoided strike action because he had “reached out” and engaged with trade unions, and a compromise had been reached.