First minister Humza Yousaf has scrapped the SNP’s coalition deal with the Scottish Greens.
According to reports, the first minister called time on the partnership after a meeting with Green leaders. Yousaf’s administration will now run a minority government.
The first minister intervened after the Scottish Greens announced plans for a vote of their own members on the deal.
Speaking at a press conference this morning, Yousaf said: “Today marks a new beginning for the SNP”.
After admitting that leading a minority administration “will be tough”, he vowed to “work not just with the Scottish Greens, but with MSPs from across the chamber”.
He added: “The SNP needs the freedom and flexibility to ensure that we move Scotland forward.
“We need to speak to the country with one voice, our voice, and as such I am clear that today marks a new beginning for the SNP.”
The SNP’s coalition partners were furious that Scotland’s climate change targets were dumped and forced a vote that was set to take place next month. Last week, the Scottish government scrapped its commitment to cut emissions by 75 per cent by 2030.
It also comes after the fallout of the landmark Cass review of gender services for under-18s in England and Wales.
The end of the power-sharing deal between the two pro-independence parties, originally negotiated by former FM Nicola Sturgeon, comes after a troubled three-year partnership.
The Bute House agreement brought Greens into government for the first time anywhere in the UK in 2021.
It created ministerial posts for the Scottish Green Party’s co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater.
Slater said this morning: “This is an act of political cowardice by the SNP, who are selling out future generations to appease the most reactionary forces in the country.
“Voters deserve better, Scotland deserves better. Scottish Green voters certainly deserve better.
“They have broken the bonds of trust with members of both parties who have twice chosen the co-operation agreement and climate action over chaos, culture wars and division. They have betrayed the electorate.
“And by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political cooperation, he can no longer be trusted.”
Jackie Baillie, the Scottish Labour deputy leader, said: “This chaotic and incompetent government is falling apart before our eyes while Scots pay the price.
“Humza Yousaf is too weak to hold his own government together and he is too weak to deliver for Scotland. Three years into the Bute House Agreement the promises the SNP and Greens made have been torn to shreds.”
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