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Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf is facing a knife-edge vote of no confidence as opposition parties lined up against him after he collapsed his party’s power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens.
The Scottish National party leader on Thursday said he would try to govern with a minority administration but will next week have to survive a vote on a motion of no-confidence introduced by the Scottish Conservatives.
Scottish Labour and the Greens said they would back the motion against Yousaf, who will need to find support from outside his party to win the vote.
Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said her party’s support had been based on the progressive policy programme laid out in the now-ditched Bute House power-sharing agreement.
“His decision today to end that agreement has without doubt called into question the delivery of that programme,” she said, citing policies such as rent controls, a ban on conversion therapy and increased climate action.
“It came with no reassurance that his minority government would continue with these objectives,” Slater added.
Yousaf’s SNP has 63 MSPs against the opposition parties’ total of 65. The parliament’s presiding officer would vote for the status quo in the event of a tie.
The collapse of the SNP-Greens coalition came after Yousaf last week dumped some of Scotland’s climate targets, sparking fury from his governing partners.
At a press conference earlier at Bute House in Edinburgh, the SNP leader said the power-sharing 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,” 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.
Yousaf denied that the decision had exposed the SNP’s weakness and insisted that he had shown “leadership”.
The SNP-Greens coalition was formed after the 2021 Holyrood election when the SNP fell short of the 65 seats needed to form a majority.
Yousaf on Thursday said “emotions were raw” but pledged to work with the Greens and other opposition parties on legislation.
But 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”.
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.
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; Ross’s Conservatives have 31.
Disunity within the SNP was exposed this week when a group of six nationalist MSPs, including Kate Forbes, who last year ran against Yousaf for the party’s leadership, rebelled against a justice bill that would pilot judge-only rape trials.
However, Forbes on Thursday said she would back Yousaf and believed he would survive the no-confidence vote.
