SNP’s power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens collapses

The SNP’s power-sharing deal with the Scottish Green Party has been scrapped.

It follows the government’s decision to scrap key climate targets and a pause on the prescription of puberty blockers for under-18s.

The SNP will now form a minority government. The Conservatives have said they will hold a vote of no confidence in First Minister Humza Yousaf.

Mr Yousaf is also facing calls from opposition parties for an election to be held.

Forming a minority government means the SNP will need to win the support of some opposition MSPs if it wants to get its plans approved by the Scottish Parliament.

the SNP hold 63 of the 129 seats at Holyrood – meaning they are two short of an overall majority – while the Greens have seven. The Scottish Conservatives hold 31 and Labour have 22.

First Minister Humza Yousaf said he had formally notified Ms Slater and Mr Harvie that the Bute House agreement – which was signed by the two parties following the Holyrood election in 2021 – had been terminated.

Ms Slater and Mr Harvie had earlier seen been walking out of Bute House – the first minister’s official residence in Edinburgh – before an emergency cabinet meeting.

The Greens said the SNP had “sold out future generations”.

The deal saw Mr Harvie and Ms Slater given junior ministerial roles within the Scottish government in return for Green support for the government’s policies. Both will now leave their posts.

Mr Yousaf said he had thanked them for their contribution to the Scottish government and made it clear the SNP intended to work with the Greens “where we can” and “in the national interest”.

“The Bute House agreement was intended to provide stability to the Scottish government and it has made possible a number of achievements,” he said.

“But it has served its purpose – it is no longer guaranteeing a stable arrangement in parliament.

“The events of recent days have made that clear and therefore after careful consideration I believe that going forward it is in the best interest of the people of Scotland to pursue a different arrangement.”

Mr Harvie previously said he would quit as co-leader if the party voted to end the agreement, but on Thursday he said his position was a discussion for another day.

Speaking to journalists in the parliament’s Garden Lobby, Mr Harvie said the first minister’s decision was a “total U-turn from recent days”.

Asked whether the Scottish Greens would be as co-operative with the government over things like the budget, he replied: “Do you think the current government will still be in place for the next budget?”

Meanwhile Ms Slater described the ending of the Bute House agreement as an “act of political cowardice by the SNP” and accused the party of “selling out future generations”.

She also said she was confident Green members would have supported the party staying in government if the vote had happened.

She said: “Neither they nor SNP members will have that opportunity. Instead, the most reactionary and backwards-looking forces within the first minister’s party have forced him to do the opposite of what he himself had said was in Scotland’s best interests.

“By contrast we as co-leaders of the Scottish Greens were prepared to put our own political careers on the line with our members, to defend our achievements in government, despite enduring all that SNP backbenchers and others threw against us.”

It comes a week after the SNP’s Energy Secretary Mairi McAllan announced that Scotland’s target of cutting carbon emissions by 75% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels was out of reach and would be scrapped – sparking anger from many grassroots Green members.

Mr Harvie said there was “distress” in the party over the move and that young trans people may now “not get access to the treatment they need”.

The first minister said on Saturday that he valued the power-sharing deal with the Greens, adding: “I think we’ve achieved a lot together in government. I want to keep achieving a lot.”

When asked whether he could soon be leading a minority government soon, Mr Yousaf had replied: “I don’t think that will be the case”.

Speaking at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Green MSPS sat quietly with their heads bowed as Mr Yousaf defended the record of the two parties in government.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross accused the first minister of “panicking before the extreme Greens could dump him”, and said he was lodging a vote of no confidence in the first minister.

It is not yet known whether the Greens will back Mr Ross in the no confidence vote, which would not be held until next week at the earliest.

Mr Ross said Mr Yousaf had “abandoned the platform he stood on”, adding: “He claims it is now a new beginning but really it’s the beginning of the end. Isn’t Humza Yousaf a lame duck first minister?”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said it was time to “end this circus” and called for an election to be held.

He said: “The challenges facing our country have never been so great, but Scotland’s government has never been so poor and its leadership has never been so weak.

“The people of Scotland can see the SNP have lost their way: weak, divided and incompetent. Putting party before country.”

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have also said they want an election.

Mr Harvie told the parliament that the SNP could no longer rely on Green votes in parliament and asked Mr Yousaf who he thought he had most pleased – Mr Ross, SNP rebel Fergus Ewing or Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader and first minister who now leads the Alba Part.

He said: “Which of them does he think he can rely on for a majority in parliament now?”

Former SNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes – a vocal critic of the SNP-Greens partnership – said on X, formerly Twitter, she believed that government is most effective “when its priorities match the public’s” and that the SNP is “most electable as a broad tent, representative of the nation”.

She added: “Amidst all the differing views in the SNP about this decision on [the Bute House agreement] by the FM, some delighted and others gutted, it is worth recalling our core objectives: to serve Scotland’s people, end inequality, eradicate poverty, govern well & pursue prosperity, like other indy nations.”

SNP MP Joanna Cherry, another critic of the Bute House agreement, said the ending of the deal was a “huge opportunity” to reset the SNP’s agenda in government.

She posted on X: “Out with identity politics and virtue signalling. In with policies to tackle the bread and butter issues that our constituents bring up on the doorsteps.”