Humza Yousaf’s official spokesman has accused the Daily Telegraph of attempting to 'explicitly' connect the First Minister to terrorism.

Speaking to journalists at a post-cabinet briefing, he said the paper’s report on a £250,000 Scottish Government donation to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) was “way, way over the line” as it claimed the SNP leader had also been reported to the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terrorist hotline.

Over the weekend, Mr Yousaf took to social media to describe the story as an "outrageous smear" based on "far right conspiracy".

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The Scottish government donated the money to the UNRWA aid agency in November 2023.

At the same time, Mr Yousaf's parents-in-law were trapped in Gaza.

On Saturday, the Daily Telegraph revealed that Mr Yousaf had overridden the initial recommendation of civil servants was to give Unicef, between £100,000 and £200,000.

However,  according to documents released through Freedom of Information, Mr Yousaf told officials that, since he was about to meet senior UNRWA delegates in Edinburgh, "we should just announce an extra £250k to them".

The paper then said that they understood that a report had been made to the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorism hotline.

It did not say who had made the report. 

Asked about the decision to ignore the advice of his civil servants, the First Minister's spokesman said he took issue with the suggestion that they had been overruled: "We have a system of government which is shared across the UK and much more widely of officials advising, ministers deciding."

He added: "A decision was taken that took the view that there needed to be much more flexibility in terms of humanitarian support provided rather than being restricted to essential water supplies and basically water and hygiene.

"At the end of the day, we're talking about two United Nations agencies."

He said it was a "pragmatic" decision. 

On the article, the First Minister’s spokesman said: “I think the thing certainly for me that put it way over the line was the reference to a report being made to the Scotland Yard anti-terror hotline.

“That is clearly, explicitly an attempt to draw on some totally bizarre, spurious connection between the First Minister and terrorism.”

He added that this was “wholly outrageous” and was what made the report “wholly objectionable.”

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In a series of posts on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, Mr Yousaf said the story was an "Islamophobic attack" and an attempt to link him to terrorism.

He said: "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."

The First Minister added: "Due to my faith & race, there will always be those, particularly on the far-right, who will desperately try to "prove" my loyalties lie elsewhere. That I am a fifth columnist in the only country I call home, the country I love and the country I have the privilege of leading.

"I can not tell you the trauma my family suffered, particularly during the weeks my in-laws were trapped there.

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

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said they treated all reports made into the anti-terrorist hotline as confidential.

“Because of this, and for operational security reasons, we therefore do not comment on or confirm specific details or matters that may get reported to us through this route.

“However, all reports get reviewed by officers and if it is assessed that further police action is required, then it will get passed to the relevant police force, or counter terrorism unit to carry this out.”