COP28: What will David Cameron achieve in Humza Yousaf spat?

David Cameron has got all angry with the Scottish Government over Humza Yousaf meeting a dodgy world leader at COP28.

We all remember Lord Cameron’s former legacy in dealing with the Scottish Government – agreeing to let Alex Salmond hold an independence referendum back in 2014, which almost led to the Union he was entrusted with defending, crumbling to the ground.

Lord Cameron’s epitaph came with his second referendum gamble – one that left his reputation in tatters after he lost the Brexit vote in 2016.

The UK Government has been upset with SNP ministers meeting foreign leaders for some time – one senior Scottish Government source told me “they f****** hate it, but they can’t really stop it”.

The insider added that “the UK Government think we do these things to talk about independence”, insisting that “officials from other governments are more keen to talk to us about independence and that seems to rub the Tories the wrong way”.

Lord Cameron’s predecessor in the Foreign Office, James Cleverly, made a similar threat in October after a row relating to an Icelandic meeting – in which he pointed to the Scottish Government contravening “longstanding guidance” about an official being in the room.

Lord Afford, the Scotland Office’s unelected minister, also reportedly lost his rag when Holyrood officials met with Icelandic leaders.

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The UK Government has clearly been waiting for Holyrood to slip up – and they believe they’ve now had their ‘gotcha’ moment.

Humza Yousaf upset some people, mostly on X, when he was snapped at COP28 shaking hands with president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Most of the angst on Twitter was due to the Turkish government’s dismal record on human rights and aversion to human rights.

The rules state that UK Government officials must be able to keep an eye on Scottish Government ministers and officials meeting with foreign governments – basically, a Whitehall listener must be in the room.

But that did not happen when Mr Yousaf met the Turkish leader in Dubai.

That has prompted Lord Cameron, in pretty much his first act as Foreign Secretary, to threaten to revoke UK Government support for the country’s overseas activities. This has been seen by his critics as quite a blusterous and gammon-like move for a newbie in the job.

Lord Cameron has claimed the absence of an official “contravenes the protocols in our guidance on FCDO support to devolved Government ministers’ overseas visits”.

He added that “any further breaches of the protocol of ministerial meetings having a FCDO official present will result in no further FCDO facilitation of meetings or logistical support”.

He said: “We will also need to consider the presence of Scottish Government offices in UK Government posts.”

The First Minister has dismissed the outrage as a reality of breezing past a flurry of world leaders at COP28 – branding Lord Cameron’s fury as “really petty and, frankly, misguided”.

At COP26, I watched as a now-former colleague of mine was bulldozed out of the way next to the overpriced sandwich shop to make way for an incoming leader of an African nation and his very sizeable entourage.

COPs are busy climate conferences, but they are also simply a hotbed of world leaders mingling about.

Mr Yousaf said the meeting in question was “rearranged at short notice by the President of Turkey’s team”, adding that “the FCDO official chose not to stay with the Scottish delegation the whole day, and because of that they ended up missing the meeting”.

This does suggest that the UK Government is perhaps being a bit tetchy about it. By their apparent standards, Scottish Government officials should have to cancel meetings if the Foreign Office pulls out at the last minute or cannot arrange meetings at short notice.

It is unlikely that the UK Government will actually pull its support in a huff – but this is a clear power move.

The UK Government has had a good year of putting the Scottish Government back into its box and moving away from being seen as ‘Scotland’s other government’.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack gave a very wobbly and underwhelming performance in the Commons when he set out his arguments for blocking the gender recognition reforms.

But after handing it over to legal professionals, the Scottish Government has had a shocker – the same is true of the stand-off over the deposit return scheme when Mr Jack also came out on top.

It is very clear that the Scottish Government working as a brand and selling point is an asset by operating in its own right overseas – and there is no constitutional reason why that cannot continue under devolution.

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Scotland House was set up in Brussels in 1999 as the first overseas post of the Scottish Government to act as a hub for dealings with the EU. But the work has significantly ramped up in recent years.

Offices in the United States, China, Ireland, London, France, Germany and Canada have also opened – as well as a Nordic base in Copenhagen.

As things stand, ‘Brand Scotland’ still has a lot to offer the world as a unique selling point. The UK Government could still try to clip the wings of the vision, but it remains unclear what this would achieve for the Scottish economy – which should remain the priority for all sides.