Kerr refuses to back down in Gaza aid row amid Yousaf anger

His comments were made in a report in a front page report in the Telegraph with the paper claiming Mr Yousaf overruled officials who advised Unicef receive a donation of £100,000 and £200,000 to instead give £250,000 to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA).

The funding was announced by the Scottish Government last November in response to an international flash appeal for emergency aid as more than a million Palestinians faced displacement amid the conflict with Israel.

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Taking to social media the First Minister described the Telegraph's report as  "outrageous smears", a view shared by other SNP politicians and some Labour MSPs.

But appearing on BBC Scotland's Sunday Show this morning, Mr Kerr defended making the comments.

He said: "I don't regret the words I used."

He had told the newspaper: “The First Minister has some serious explaining to do, starting with why he overrode officials to take money away from the vital Unicef water programme and assign it to UNRWA.

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“It looks as if the money was not budgeted and that the First Minister was prepared to bend the rules and not follow procedure.

“Humza Yousaf has a clear conflict of interest in the awarding of aid to Gaza. Clearly, the fact that so many members of his family are either living in Gaza or are involved with Palestinian organisations raises significant questions about what his motivation is for using taxpayers’ money in the area.”

Asked on the BBC Sunday Show if he would retract his comments or soften them, Mr Kerr replied 'no'.

He added that the question was how it came about that £200,000 that have been allocated to Unicef water project redirected.

It was pointed out to Mr Kerr that governments around the world made similar decisions so that the aid could be directed in a fast and flexible way.

Mr Kerr restated that he was raising 'reasonable' questions to hold the government to account and he believed the First Minister had over-reacted in his reaction to the article.

"There is nothing unusual in asking questions about how decisions were made and why they were made," he said.

"And the reaction of the First Minister I felt was an over-reaction."

He then went on to say he would not be "apologising" for doing his job and didn't regret the words he had used.

Mr Kerr added: "No one who watched the trauma that the First Minister went through in the days and weeks when his family were stuck, locked in Gaza. Of course there was an issue of personal interest."

The presenter said not everyone accepted there was an issue of personal interest in the funding made to Gaza.

He said the First Minister could have an personal involvement in the situation while the Scottish Government devoted humanitarian aid to people in the area.

"That being the case, the question is very simple: what happened and why did it happen?" said Mr Kerr.

In his response to the report Mr Yousaf accused The Telegraph of peddling far-right, Islamophobic conspiracy theories over the £250,000 donation to the UNRWA “to support displaced people in Gaza access food, water, shelter and medical supplies”.

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At the time, Mr Yousaf’s parents-in-law, Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband, Maged, were trapped in Gaza. The couple had travelled to the city in October to visit Maged’s mother, who had a stroke in March.

Responding on Twitter/X, Mr Yousaf said: “I don’t usually respond to smears against me or my family but this story is so outrageous it requires a response. Most of my political life, I’ve battled insinuations from sections of the media desperate to link me to terrorism despite campaigning my whole life against it.”

The “latest smear” from The Telegraph is just a continuation of these Islamophobic attacks, Mr Yousaf said.

“To be clear, the Scottish government gave money to Gaza, like virtually every government in the West, because of the unarguable humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded there. 

"Funding to UNRWA was deemed the most flexible way of ensuring money got to where it was needed. Hence why so many governments, including the UK, gave millions to them.”

According to The Telegraph, Mr Yousaf told officials that since he was about to meet UNRWA officials “we should just announce an extra £250k to them” rather than give money to Unicef, a different UN agency, which was recommended by staff.

A spokesman for Mr Yousaf yesterday denied the donation was connected to his family and said there was a “rigorous process to ensure complete transparency and accountability” in the allocation of money from the International Development Fund.

The First Minister then went online to personally reject any accusations of conflict of interest.
He reiterated that the aid agency had no role in helping his in-laws flee the conflict — they arrived back in Scotland on November 5 two days after escaping Gaza — adding they were able to leave because of “the hard work of the crisis team at the FCDO [Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office], like every other British national”.

He added: “To suggest otherwise is a flat-out lie and smear.”

Mr Yousaf has often spoken out about abuse he has received because of his Muslim faith.

He wrote: “I can not tell you the trauma my family has suffered, particularly during the weeks my in-laws were trapped there.

“To peddle far-right conspiracies in a newspaper is outrageous and will only encourage a further pile-on of vile abuse my family and I have suffered throughout this period.”

He added: “Due to my faith and race, there will always be those, particularly on the far-right, who will desperately try to ‘prove’ my loyalties lie elsewhere.”

Mr Yousaf was supported by the Muslim Council of Britain, which said: “Yet another desperate attempt to smear the First Minister of Scotland and his family. It seems the leadership shown by Humza Yousaf to get urgently needed aid to 2.2 million starving Gazans must be viewed with suspicion; I’m sure his being Muslim has nothing to do with it?”

UNRWA has since been at the centre of controversy surrounding Israeli accusations that members of its staff were involved in the October 7 attacks by Hamas that triggered the fighting.

Several countries, including the UK, have announced a pause in support for the relief agency while an investigation takes place.