Humza Yousaf says deal with Greens ‘has served its purpose’ and ‘balance has shifted’ – UK politics live | Politics

Q: Does this U-turn show you are weak? [This is the argument the Scottish Tories are making – see 9.54am.]

Yousaf replied:

Quite the opposite. It shows leadership.

As the leader of the government, leader of the party that elected me, I’ve got to make sure I do what’s in the best interest of Scotland.

Yousaf says as leader of the government he has to decide how best it can make changes.

For almost three years the SNP had done that throught its agreement with the Scottish Greens. That deal has “undoubtedly” delivered some successes.

But he says, in almost any walk of life, cooperation is a trade-off.

He says, when he said the deal was worth its weight in gold, he meant it.

But he says that is no longer the case. He goes on:

The balance has shifted. The Bute House agreement was intended to provide stability to the Scottish government. And it’s made possible a number of achievements. But it has served its purpose.

Yousaf says the deal was no longer providing stability in parliament.

He says he has told the Scottish Greens he is terminating it with immediate effect.

In the future, the two parties will still cooperate, but in a less formal way, he says.

Humza Yousaf, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, is holding a press conference now.

He says he has been in the post for little more than a year.

When he took over, he said he was committed to ensuring every family had equality of opportunity, and to promoting measures to encourage growth, and to improve well being.

He says his policies are making a difference.

We are investing record [sums in the NHS], ensuring it can employ record numbers of staff delivering the best performing A&E units in UK. We are, of course, the only part of the UK to avoid strike action in NHS. I’ve delivered the council tax freeze this year in every local authority, helping families …

And last week we approved plans for Europe’s largest floating offshore wind farm. These are just some of the actions that are making Scotland a better country.

The Tories are claiming the end of the pact with the Scottish Greens is “an utter humiliation” for Humza Yousaf. The Scottish Conservative chair, Craig Hoy, has put out this statement.

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.

It beggars belief that the Greens were invited into government in the first place – but even more astonishing that Humza Yousaf allowed them to call the shots on issues like abandoning oil and gas, further delays to dualling the A9 and A96, devastating fishing curbs and gender ideology.

Humza Yousaf’s year as SNP leader has been a disastrous mix of scandals, infighting and policy U-turns. The collapse of the power-sharing pact he staked his reputation on is not just humiliating, it highlights once again how inept and out his depth he is.

Lorna Slater, one of the co-leaders of the Scottish Greens, has confirmed that the power-sharing agreement with the SNP is over.

In a statement, she said the SNP’s decision to end the deal, without allowing party members a say, was ‘an act of political cowardice”.

Good morning. Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has reportedly abandoned the SNP’s power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens. He called an emergency meeting of his cabinet this morning, and the co-leaders of the Scottish Greens, Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie, who were ministers, were seen leaving soon afterwards. Yousaf reportedly sacked them, and plans to run a minority administration.

Yousaf has not publicly confirmed this yet, but a press conference is expected later.

This is from PA Media with some background.

The Greens were angered when the Scottish net zero Secretary Mairi McAllan announced last week the Scottish government was to ditch a key climate change target.

That, combined with the decision to pause the use of puberty blockers for new patients attending the only Scottish gender identity clinic for children in Glasgow, resulted in the Greens saying last week that they would have a vote on the future of the powersharing deal.

That vote is expected to take place later on in May – but it now appears the SNP could end the Bute House Agreement before that.

The deal, which was signed in 2021 and is named after the official residence of the Scottish first minister in Edinburgh, brought the Green party into government for the first time anywhere in the UK.

It gave the SNP a majority at Holyrood when the votes of its MSPs were combined with those of the seven Greens members, and also made Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater junior ministers in the Scottish government.

Without it the SNP would need to operate as a minority administration at Holyrood.

High-profile figures in the SNP, such as former leadership candidate Kate Forbes and party stalwart Fergus Ewing, have previously called for the deal to be ended.

We will have more on this as the situation develops.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, gives a speech setting out details of Labour’s plans to nationalise the rail network.

9.30am: The ONS publishes crime figures for England and Wales.

9.45am: Angela van den Bogerd, the former Post Office people services director, gives evidence to the Post Office Horizon inquiry. She is seen as one of the most Post Office executives to give evidence so far because of the key role she played in defending the prosecutions of post officer operators.

11am: An announcement is expected in the Lords confirming that the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill has received royal assent.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Lunchtime: James Cleverly, the home secretary, is speaking at a press gallery lunch at Westminster.

Early afternoon: Keir Starmer is on a visit to a rail manufacturing plan in the north-east of England.

Also, David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is in Mongolia on the latest stage of his trip to Central Asia.

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