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Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf will try to repair rift with Greens to save his job

Angry Scottish Greens threatening to back no-confidence motion in the SNP leader after he ended governing partnership with them

SNP leader and Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf in Dundee on Friday. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
SNP leader and Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf in Dundee on Friday. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
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Mark Paul London Correspondent
Fri Apr 26 2024 - 20:34

Humza Yousaf has promised to fight on as Scotland’s first minister and said he will try to convince the Scottish Greens to do a U-turn by backing him in a crucial confidence vote next week that could end his stint in power if he loses.

However, the Greens have indicated the party still plans to bring him down in the vote, although it might be prepared to work with an alternative first minister from Mr Yousaf’s Scottish Nationalist Party.

Mr Yousaf’s political career and potentially the future of the SNP government have been left hanging by a thread this week after he abruptly ended his party’s governing partnership with the Greens. The SNP aims to tack back towards the political centre, away from politically unpopular left-wing policies associated with the Greens.

The first minister, who took over from Nicola Sturgeon a year ago, on Thursday sacked the two Scottish Greens ministers, party co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater. He said the SNP would seek to govern on its own as a minority administration until the next Holyrood elections in 2026.

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However, the Greens were furious at Mr Yousaf’s decision to end the Bute House agreement between the two parties, only days after saying it was “worth its weight in gold”. The Greens accused the first minister of “cowardice” and said they would back a Tory no-confidence vote in him next week.

If the Greens refuse to reconsider and vote against the first minister, he could win the confidence vote only with the backing of Ash Regan, a former colleague and now bitter political rival who defected to Alex Salmond’s Alba Party after losing the SNP’s leadership contest to Mr Yousaf.

Meanwhile, Labour is in the background trying to drum up enough support in Scotland’s parliament to table a separate no-confidence motion in the entire devolved government, which would spark an early election if it gains enough support.

When asked by Sky News on Friday if he intended to resign, Mr Yousaf said he would not and that he “intends absolutely to fight” the Tory vote of no confidence in him as leader. “I’ve got every intention of winning,” he said.

He told BBC he had “heard the anger and upset” from the Greens about the way he ended the Bute House arrangement and suggested that he would try to convince them to enter a “less formal” agreement to back him. Mr Yousaf told ITV, meanwhile, that he would “urge” the Greens to reconsider their decision to try to bring him down.

However, Mr Harvie later told reporters that “it’s pretty clear [Mr Yousaf is] not the person who is going to be able to bring together a majority” in Scotland’s parliament, which suggests the first minister has his work cut out over the weekend to tempt the Greens into a U-turn.

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

Mr Salmond, a former SNP leader who left the party after falling out with Ms Sturgeon, has said that the first minister could end up being known as “Humza the Brief” unless he does a deal with Ms Regan, Alba’s only member of the Scottish parliament.

Ms Regan said she had written to Mr Yousaf on Friday laying out three conditions for her support, including a return to “competent” government and consideration of fresh legal powers to call an independence referendum.

Her other condition was that the SNP commits to policies designed to ensure “the dignity, safety and rights of women and children”, seen as a reference to the possible roll-back of self-ID rights for trans people in Scotland. Ms Regan quit her former SNP ministerial role in government in 2022 over this issue, and is seen as having gender-critical views.

Mr Yousaf suggested on Friday that he would respond to Ms Regan’s letter, but he appeared lukewarm about the prospect of trying to secure her support; when she defected to Alba he said she was “no great loss” and the two are thought to have barely spoken for a year.

Yet if he cannot secure a U-turn from the Greens before next week’s vote, Ms Regan and Mr Salmond’s Alba may be his only way to stay in power.