Yousaf faces no-confidence vote as SNP’s powersharing deal with Greens collapses

Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf is facing a vote of no confidence after he scrapped his party’s powersharing agreement with the Scottish Greens and vowed to govern as a minority government.

Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, called for the vote that could bring down the Scottish National Party administration. Scottish Labour said it backed the vote, which will probably take place next week.

Mr Yousaf’s SNP has 63 MSPs with opposition parties holding 65, meaning he would need to attract support from outside his party to win the vote. The presiding officer would vote for the status quo in the event of a tie.

The collapse of the SNP-Green coalition came after Mr Yousaf last week dumped some of Scotland’s climate targets, sparking fury from the Greens.

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At a press conference earlier at Bute House, Edinburgh, the SNP leader said the powersharing agreement had “served its purpose”, and argued the break would allow his party to govern “on our policy terms”.

“We will now step up our ambition, but as a minority government – that will be tough,” Mr Yousaf said, noting that SNP governments had previously governed without a majority.

“We need to speak to the country with one voice, so today marks a new beginning for the SNP,” he added.

Mr Yousaf denied that the decision had exposed the SNP’s weakness and insisted that he had shown “leadership”.

The SNP-Green coalition was formed after the 2021 Holyrood election when the SNP came up short of the 65 MSPs needed to form a majority.

Mr Yousaf on Thursday said “emotions were raw”, but pledged to work with the Greens and other opposition parties on legislation.

But Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said that “by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political co-operation he can no longer be trusted”.

Ms Slater said the SNP had repeatedly let down the Green Party’s attempts to introduce a “fairer, greener Scotland”, including in policies on oil and gas and the country’s 2030 emissions reduction targets.

Mr Ross called Yousaf “weak” as he pushed forward a motion of no confidence. The motion needs the support of 25 MSPs to go to a vote. Mr Ross’s party has 31 MSPs.

Disunity within the SNP was exposed this week when a group of six nationalist MSPs, including former leadership candidate Kate Forbes, rebelled against a justice bill that would pilot judge-only rape trials. However, on Thursday Ms Forbes, who last year ran against Mr Yousaf for the SNP leadership, said she would back him and believed he would survive the no-confidence vote.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024