Scotland's Humza Yousaf quits as ruling-SNP first minister

Scottish leader Humza Yousaf on Monday announced his resignation as the possibility he might scrape a win in two no-confidence votes appeared to wane.

Yousaf's leadership was plunged into trouble last week when he ended a cooperation agreement between his Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scotland's Green Party.

What did the SNP leader say?

The first minister said he had not realized how much upset ending the deal, known as the Bute House Agreement, would generate. He said he needed to step aside so that bridges could be rebuilt.

"My hope was to continue working with the Greens in a less formal arrangement as the SNP moved into a new phase of minority government. Unfortunately, in ending the Bute House Agreement in the manner that I did, I clearly underestimated the level of hurt and upset that caused Green colleagues.

"For a minority government to be able to govern effectively and efficiently, trust with working with the opposition is clearly fundamental."   

"I have concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm," Yousaf said.

Yousaf said he would remain as first minister until the SNP elected a successor as its leader.

"As a young boy, born and raised in Scotland, I could never have dreamt that one day I would have the privilege of leading my country," Yousaf said in his resignation speech. "People like me were not in positions of political influence, let alone leading governments when I was younger."

"We now live in a UK that has a British Hindu prime minister, a Muslim mayor of London, a Black Welsh first minister and, for a little while longer, a Scots Asian first minister."

How did things go wrong?

The rift with the Greens came after a dispute over climate change, with Yousef having ditched Scotland's goal of cutting carbon emissions by 75% by 2030.

While Yousaf had hoped to lead a minority government, opposition parties moved quickly to say they would not support him.

The SNP-Green deal, known as the Bute House Agreement after Yousaf's official residence in Edinburgh, was signed in 2021. 

It put the Green Party into government for the first time anywhere in the UK, where devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have limited powers. Areas of competence include environment, health, transport, and social policy.

The SNP has struggled in the wake of the resignation last year of party leader Nicola Sturgeon. The party elected 39-year-old Yousaf as her successor but his political honeymoon was short.

A campaign finance scandal surfaced that was rooted in Sturgeon's time in office, and the party has been dogged by infighting over how progressive it should be on issues such as transgender rights.

rc/wd (AFP, Reuters, dpa)