Humza Yousaf announced he is resigning after failing to drum up enough support to survive a confidence vote.
Humza Yousaf dramatically quit today capping an extraordinary meltdown triggered by sacking his Green coalition partners.
Choking up as he paid tribute to his family's support, Mr Yousaf said: 'I am in absolute debt to my wonderful wife, my beautiful children and my wider family for putting up with me over the years. I'm afraid you will be seeing a lot more of me from now.Mr Yousaf spent the weekend frantically wooing MSPs, but concluded there was no way of clinging on.
After he summarily ditched the Greens from the Bute House coalition deal - and publicly humiliated them by making them do a walk of shame in view of cameras - they pledged to back a no confidence motion tabled by the Tories.Attention now turns to who will succeed Mr Yousaf, with signs former deputy First Minister John Swinney could take over as a caretaker. He admitted earlier it would be a 'difficult' day.
'For a minority government to be able to govern effectively trust when working with the opposition is clearly fundamental.'But he added: 'I am not willing to trade in my values or principles or do deals with whomever simply for retaining power.' Labour insiders say with every extra percentage of support in Scotland, more constituencies come into play as the SNP's margins of victory were relatively small in 2019.
Mr Swinney is said to have been approached by senior party figures to become an interim First Minister. 'But the Scottish Greens could no longer have confidence in Humza Yousaf after he chose to unilaterally end the Bute House Agreement. In doing so he let down the large majority of Scottish Green and SNP members who approved the agreement who wanted it to work.
Scottish Green Party co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater arrive for First Minister's Questions on Thursday. The Greens have said they will support a vote of no confidence in the First Minister Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said: 'Like his predecessors, he spent far too much time obsessing about the break-up of the UK while ignoring the real priorities of people in Scotland, who are living with the failures of 17 years of the SNP in government.'
If he managed to get to 64 votes and tie the vote, the presiding officer would back the status quo, he would have been able to hold on. JK Rowling even waded into the row, saying it is 'karma' that the First Minister is now reliant on Ms Regan, who defected to Alba in protest at the SNP's gender ID stance.
Speaking on Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Alex Salmond said a 'top line' of any discussion with Mr Yousaf would be the idea of reviving the Scotland United strategy Some in the Greens were unhappy at the Scottish Government's recent dropping of 2030 climate targets and the decision to pause the prescription of new puberty blockers at Scotland's only gender clinic.
His resignation has left the SNP facing a second divisive leadership contest within less than 18 months.Kate Forbes was narrowly defeated by Mr Yousaf in last year's SNP leadership election as the party chose a successor to Nicola Sturgeon. Ms Forbes, who is married to Ali MacLennan, has been touted as a future SNP leader since entering the Scottish Parliament as MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch in 2016.She is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, sometimes known as the 'Wee Frees', which is opposed to gay marriage and believes there are few circumstances in which abortion is justified.
Ms Gilruth has already been dubbed the 'Stop Kate Forbes' candidate, with it thought allies of Mr Yousaf and Ms Sturgeon could rally round her.John Swinney was Scotland's deputy first minister in Ms Sturgeon's administration at Holyrood.He has held a series of top Cabinet jobs in the Scottish government, including a beleaguered stint as education secretary.
Mr Ross's predecessor, Ruth Davidson, deputised for him at First Minister's Questions before he was able to take a seat in the Scottish Parliament himself at the 2021 election.
News Labour SNP Edinburgh Humza Yousaf Alex Salmond Nicola Sturgeon Kate Forbes Ash Regan Conservatives
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