Humza Yousaf to resign as Scotland’s first minister

Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf is set to resign from his role as early as today, the BBC says. 

The SNP leader is expected to stand down following the collapse of the Bute House Agreement – his party’s power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens – last week. 

Yousaf has been struggling to secure support to lead a minority government.

He is set to face two confidence votes this week – one in him personally, the other in his government. 

The SNP has 63 MSPs in the 129-seat parliament, so if the seven Green MSPs vote against him, he is reliant on support from the sole Alba party MSP Ash Regan to continue in his role.

He has reportedly ruled out cutting a deal with Alba, a pro-independence party formed by First Minister Alex Salmond after he broke from the SNP. 

That would lead to a 64:64 tied vote in which case the presiding officer would be expected to vote to maintain the status quo.

The motion of no confidence in him personally is not binding, but if he lost he would come under intense pressure to step down.

If he lost the government vote, MSPs would have 28 days to vote for a new first minister or automatically trigger a Scottish Parliament election.

Humza Yousaf to resign despite recent vows to continue

Humza Yousaf, SNP leader, vows to stay on as First Minister despite no confidence motionshttps://t.co/ESye9YB24Q pic.twitter.com/64WkSCYsNP

— WTX News UK (@WtxNews) April 26, 2024