Why David Cameron rebuked Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf over a foreign policy meeting

Yousaf says the intervention is ‘petty and misguided’ but there’s nothing new about devolved governments seeking meetings overseas, as Sean O’Grady explains

Scotland first minister Humza Yousaf meets President Erdogan of Turkey at Cop28 in Dubai (Handout/EPA)

New foreign secretary Lord Cameron caused a stir with a strongly worded letter to Scotland’s first minister. With barely disguised anger, the newly ennobled Cameron reprimanded Humza Yousaf for having a quasi-diplomatic meeting with President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey (a man, it must be said, who shows little empathy towards separatist movements in his own country).

The exchange took place at the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai, and the absence of a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) official seems to have sent Cameron up his richly decorated office wall. Cameron told Yousaf – via Angus Robertson, the Scottish minister for external affairs – to observe protocol or else: “Any further breaches of the protocol of ministerial meetings having [an] FCDO official present will result in no further FCDO facilitation of meetings or logistical support. We will also need to consider the presence of Scottish government offices in UK government posts.” It underscores tensions between Westminster and the devolved administrations.

What does Humza Yousaf say?