Humza Yousaf boots Greens out of Scottish Government amid dramatic emergency cabinet meeting
THE Scottish Greens left government ahead of a dramatic cabinet meeting.
First Minister Humza Yousaf summoned his ministers to a meeting at Bute House at 8.30am.
Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater were called to Bute House early this morning and left, before the cabinet meeting.
The sensational decision follows mounting pressure on the First Minister to end the power-sharing deal between the parties.
Mr Yousaf will hold a press conference at Bute House at 10am.
The emergency meeting was first reported by the Wings Over Scotland website last night, which joked that Mr Yousaf may be about to declare war on Morocco.
A Scottish Greens source said: “Everyone in that chamber is now more concerned with messing with the SNP than passing good law.
“The idea that they can just pivot back to how they governed as a minority gov is just nonsense and will become clear as day immediately.”
Greens councillor Anthony Carroll wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “This reactive and impulsive response by Humza Yousaf is exactly what was making me wary of continuing the Bute House Agreement recently.
“This shows great weakness, not leadership, in how feart he is of a healthy party democracy like in the Greens.”
Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie 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.”
Mr Yousaf yesterday rejected the idea of ending the SNP-Green coalition – and rubbished the idea of giving Nats members a say on the power-sharing deal.
The First Minister faced increasing internal pressure to scrap the co-operation agreement after critics labelled him “weak” for sticking with it.
During a visit to the opening of the new JP Morgan building in Glasgow, Mr Yousaf said the Scottish Government had “achieved a lot” as part of the coalition.
He said: “I’ve made it very clear that I value the partnership with the Greens, and I can see the benefit.
“I think the people of Scotland can feel the benefit of what we’ve been able to achieve together, so I hope Green members can also see that.”
Despite his coalition partners giving their membership an opportunity to vote on the deal, Mr Yousaf rejected the possibility of following suit.
He said: “We’ve already had a vote. I stood on an election platform myself just over a year ago about maintaining the Green co-operation deal.
“But I don’t think a vote is what SNP members necessarily want or indeed need at this time.”
More to follow.
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