Scotland First Minister Humza Yousaf is preparing to step down on Monday, The Sunday Times and BBC reported, after concluding he wouldn’t survive a confidence vote triggered when he pulled the plug on a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens last week.
Senior members of his Scottish National Party were informed of Yousaf’s decision over the weekend, the Times reported, without saying where it obtained the information. John Swinney has been approached to become interim first minister in the event of Yousaf’s departure, though the former SNP leader is reluctant to step up because of personal reasons, the newspaper said.
How did it get to this?
Yousaf precipitated a crisis in his government on Thursday morning after he blindsided colleagues by ripping up the Bute House agreement with the Scottish Greens, brokered by Nicola Sturgeon after the 2021 Holyrood election, which cemented a progressive pro-independence majority in the Scottish parliament.
The Greens reacted furiously, immediately agreeing to support a motion of no confidence in Yousaf’s leadership brought by the Scottish Conservatives.
His considerations are further complicated by a second no-confidence vote against the entire Scottish government, brought by Scottish Labour, which would require the first minister and his ministers to resign if successful.
With the SNP two votes short of a majority at Holyrood, the parliamentary arithmetic is such that this leaves Yousaf dependent on the vote of the former SNP minister Ash Regan, who defected to Alex Salmond’s Alba party last October in protest at the SNP’s stance on gender recognition reform and lack of progress on independence.
The SNP’s predicament has been worsened by uncertainties over who could take over as interim first minister and lead the party if he stood down.
With the party facing its second leadership contest in a little over a year, Yousaf’s deputy first minister, Shona Robison, is second in command in the government but does not hold the same post in the SNP. The party’s depute leader is Keith Brown, a former minister.
Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator Ellie Reeves told Sky News on Monday that Scottish voters should get a say in what happens next. “No one voted for Humza Yousaf and given all of the chaos, I think there should be an election up in Scotland.”
But the Greens indicated they’d be willing to support a minority SNP administration, though not one with Yousaf as its leader.
“It depends on trust, and he personally has broken trust,” Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said on BBC Radio 4. “I don’t think there’s anything that Humza Yousaf will be able to say that can restore the trust that he’s broken.”
Ahead of a UK-wide election expected in the autumn, Yousaf had been trying to rebuild the SNP’s image around stable government following a year of turmoil after long-time leader Nicola Sturgeon stepped down.
Styling himself as a “continuity candidate” helped him beat off rivals. but it also meant he inherited some unpopular policies forged by Sturgeon in conjunction with the Greens that alienated parts of the SNP and the wider electorate.
Tensions with the Greens came to a head when the government scrapped a plan to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030 after concluding it was unachievable.
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Scotland First Minister Humza Yousaf is preparing to step down on Monday, The Sunday Times and BBC reported, after concluding he wouldn’t survive a confidence vote triggered when he pulled the plug on a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens last week.
Senior members of his Scottish National Party were informed of Yousaf’s decision over the weekend, the Times reported, without saying where it obtained the information. John Swinney has been approached to become interim first minister in the event of Yousaf’s departure, though the former SNP leader is reluctant to step up because of personal reasons, the newspaper said.
How did it get to this?
Yousaf precipitated a crisis in his government on Thursday morning after he blindsided colleagues by ripping up the Bute House agreement with the Scottish Greens, brokered by Nicola Sturgeon after the 2021 Holyrood election, which cemented a progressive pro-independence majority in the Scottish parliament.
The Greens reacted furiously, immediately agreeing to support a motion of no confidence in Yousaf’s leadership brought by the Scottish Conservatives.
His considerations are further complicated by a second no-confidence vote against the entire Scottish government, brought by Scottish Labour, which would require the first minister and his ministers to resign if successful.
With the SNP two votes short of a majority at Holyrood, the parliamentary arithmetic is such that this leaves Yousaf dependent on the vote of the former SNP minister Ash Regan, who defected to Alex Salmond’s Alba party last October in protest at the SNP’s stance on gender recognition reform and lack of progress on independence.
The SNP’s predicament has been worsened by uncertainties over who could take over as interim first minister and lead the party if he stood down.
With the party facing its second leadership contest in a little over a year, Yousaf’s deputy first minister, Shona Robison, is second in command in the government but does not hold the same post in the SNP. The party’s depute leader is Keith Brown, a former minister.
Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator Ellie Reeves told Sky News on Monday that Scottish voters should get a say in what happens next. “No one voted for Humza Yousaf and given all of the chaos, I think there should be an election up in Scotland.”
But the Greens indicated they’d be willing to support a minority SNP administration, though not one with Yousaf as its leader.
“It depends on trust, and he personally has broken trust,” Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said on BBC Radio 4. “I don’t think there’s anything that Humza Yousaf will be able to say that can restore the trust that he’s broken.”
Ahead of a UK-wide election expected in the autumn, Yousaf had been trying to rebuild the SNP’s image around stable government following a year of turmoil after long-time leader Nicola Sturgeon stepped down.
Styling himself as a “continuity candidate” helped him beat off rivals. but it also meant he inherited some unpopular policies forged by Sturgeon in conjunction with the Greens that alienated parts of the SNP and the wider electorate.
Tensions with the Greens came to a head when the government scrapped a plan to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030 after concluding it was unachievable.
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