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Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has scrapped his party’s power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens and vowed to continue to govern as a minority government.
At a press conference at Bute House, the Scottish National party leader said the deal with the Greens had “served its purpose” and argued the break would allow the SNP to govern “on our policy terms”.
The collapse of the power-sharing agreement came after Yousaf last week dumped some of Scotland’s climate targets, sparking fury from the Greens.
The coalition was formed after the 2021 Holyrood election when the SNP came up one short of the 65 MSPs needed to form a majority.
Yousaf on Thursday said “emotions were raw” but pledged to work with the Greens and other opposition parties on legislation.
“[The agreement] has served its purpose,” he said. “It is time for the SNP to navigate parliament as a minority government.”
Yousaf denied that the decision had exposed the SNP’s weakness and insisted that he had shown “leadership”.
The Scottish Greens confirmed the end of the Bute House agreement — and said Yousaf’s SNP had “sold out future generations”.
Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said that “by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political co-operation, he can no longer be trusted”.
Slater said the SNP had repeatedly let down the Green party’s attempts to introduce a “fairer, greener Scotland”, including in policies on oil and gas and the country’s 2030 emissions reduction targets.