It is “frustrating” that the UK Government has had to appoint its third Health Secretary since the start of the pandemic, Humza Yousaf has said as a Tory revolt causes upheaval in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet.
The Scottish Health Secretary said he had built up a “positive relationship” with former UK counterpart Sajid Javid over the past year.
“Now you’ve got to build that rapport back up, and it takes months and months to do that,” he told the PA news agency on Wednesday.
Mr Javid resigned as health secretary on Tuesday night, alongside chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Following his resignation, Mr Javid said the British people “expect integrity from their Government” but voters now believe the Prime Minister’s administration is neither competent nor “acting in the national interest”.
It came after Mr Johnson was forced to apologise over his handling of the Chris Pincher row after it emerged he had forgotten about being told of previous allegations of “inappropriate” conduct by the MP as far back as 2019.
Steve Barclay was announced as the new Health Secretary following Mr Javid’s resignation, making him the third person to hold the position over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Javid had previously replaced Matt Hancock, who stepped down last year after a video emerged of him breaching Covid-19 rules.
Mr Yousaf said of Mr Javid: “For all our political differences, we would communicate quite regularly.
“If we had to have a one-to-one, in fairness to Sajid Javid, he made himself accessible. I hope I made myself accessible to him when he wanted those conversations.
“Four-nations working is important for things like the vaccine programme, or antivirals, and particularly a Covid response, and therefore when we are hit with another wave, or when we’re preparing for the autumn/winter vaccination programme as we’re already doing, that four-nations co-operation can be very important.
“Having to build that again, that relationship and rapport, up with a new Health Secretary will take time and that’s a source of frustration.”
Mr Yousaf described the Prime Minister as a “charlatan”, and said he should “do what he’s never done in his life before – think of somebody else other than himself”.
The SNP MSP added: “His cabinet should do the same, and they should all go.
“They should do what’s best for the country. They have shown themselves to be deceitful over the course of a number of scandals, and the best thing they can do for the country is go.
“I challenge anybody in Scotland to look at what’s happening down at Westminster and see anything other than a sinking ship.
“I say to them, there’s a chance to get off that sinking ship, and I hope Scotland takes that opportunity.”
