Scottish Greens to vote against Yousaf in confidence motion after powersharing deal terminated
ITV News Correspondent Peter Smith analyses the political danger facing the Scottish first minister
The Scottish Greens will vote against Humza Yousaf in a vote of no confidence after the first minister pulled out of the powersharing Bute House Agreement.
Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said: “We no longer have confidence in a progressive government in Scotland doing the right thing for climate and nature.”
The no confidence motion had been proposed by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross after Mr Yousaf announced the end of the agreement on Thursday morning.
The decision means Scottish Green co-leader Ms Slater and Patrick Harvie are no longer ministers.
Their MSP group met on Thursday afternoon to discuss their approach to the no confidence vote.
Ms Slater confirmed that rather than abstaining “we will vote in favour of a vote of no confidence”.
She said the first minister had “caved in to the conservative, right-wing branch” of the SNP.
Earlier, the Scottish Conservatives confirmed they will lodge a vote of no confidence in Mr Yousaf - with Tory leader Mr Ross branding him “weak” and a “failed first minister”.
That came after an emergency meeting of the Scottish Cabinet on Thursday morning, where Mr Yousaf terminated the powersharing deal his party had with the Scottish Greens with “immediate effect”.
The Bute House Agreement had given the SNP a majority at Holyrood, and in the wake of its collapse the Tories sought to heap further pressure on the first minister.
During a press conference at Bute House, his official residence in Edinburgh, the first minister said: “It is no longer guaranteeing a stable arrangement in Parliament, the events of recent days have made that clear, and therefore, after careful consideration, I believe that going forward it is in the best interest of the people of Scotland to pursue a different arrangement.
“That is why, following a discussion with my Cabinet this morning, I have formally notified Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater that I am terminating the Bute House Agreement with immediate effect.”
He said the day marks a “new beginning for this SNP government”.
The Greens had planned to hold a vote on the future of the Bute House Agreement – which takes its name from the first minister's official residence in Edinburgh and was signed when Nicola Sturgeon was first minister.
But before that could be held, the SNP acted to call time on the arrangement.
Ms Slater insisted the Green co-leaders had been “confident” their members would have backed staying in government in the vote, and “continuing our work for Scotland”.
But some high-profile members of the SNP, including former leadership candidate Kate Forbes and party stalwart Fergus Ewing, have previously questioned the arrangement – prompting Ms Slater to claim the “most reactionary and backwards-looking forces within the first minister's party have forced him to do the opposite of what he himself had said was in Scotland’s best interests”.
She insisted: “By contrast, we as co-leaders of the Scottish Greens were prepared to put our own political careers on the line with our members, to defend our achievements in government, despite enduring all that SNP backbenchers and others threw against us.”
Continuing her attack on the first minister, Ms Slater added: “What a pity he didn’t have the fortitude or the bravery to do the same.”
Speaking about the SNP, she said: “If they can’t stand up to members of their own party, how can anyone expect them to stand up to the UK government at Westminster and defend the interests of Scotland?”
In response to the end of the power-sharing deal, Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said: “This chaotic and incompetent government is falling apart before our eyes.
“Humza Yousaf is too weak to hold his own government together and he is too weak to deliver for Scotland.”
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: “The collapse of this toxic coalition is an utter humiliation for Humza Yousaf, who hailed it as ‘worth its weight in gold’ and continued to back it to the hilt right until the end.
“The first minister’s judgment is so poor that he couldn’t see what a malign influence the anti-growth Greens have been in government and his authority so weak that he was bounced into this U-turn by his own MSPs.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the end of the agreement had left the SNP and Greens “at each others’ throats”.
He added: “They are now trying to blame each other, but in reality they have both failed the people of Scotland.”
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