Grovelling Humza's begging letters to his political rivals trends now
Humza Yousaf has sent humiliating ‘begging’ letters to opposition leaders in a desperate bid to avoid being ousted as First Minister.
The ‘lame duck’ SNP leader has asked his political rivals to meet him in the coming days to try to find ‘common ground’ after the extraordinary fallout from his decision to dump the Scottish Greens from government and run a minority administration.
Mr Yousaf faces two votes of no confidence at Holyrood this week – one against himself put forward by the Tories and one against his government proposed by Labour.
His grovelling letters were sent yesterday to the leaders of the Tories, Labour, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and Alex Salmond’s Alba Party.
He is particularly desperate to persuade former SNP Minister Ash Regan, now the Alba leader at Holyrood, to support him.
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His fate may well lie in her hands as Ms Regan – who Mr Yousaf said was ‘no great loss to the SNP’ when she defected to Alba last year – could have the casting vote in the no confidence ballot against him.
She has already submitted a list of demands, including over independence and gender, to the First Minister before she decides whether to help keep him in office.
Allies of Ms Regan have confirmed she has received his letter asking her for a meeting and that there is an emergency Alba National Executive Committee meeting this morning to discuss what her red lines will be in her negotiations with the SNP leader.
They say she will be likely to call on him to strengthen his independence plans, move away from identity politics, accept the findings of the Cass gender treatment review and invest properly in key public services such as the NHS and education.
Holyrood arithmetic dictates that Mr Yousaf needs at least 64 of the 129 MSPs to support him in order to win the no confidence vote in him as First Minister.
This is due to the fact that Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone will back the status quo in the event of a tie.
The SNP has 63 MSPs, leaving Mr Yousaf one short of the number he needs to reach.
It is possible Mr Yousaf could win over one or two Green MSPs – but that seems highly unlikely given the poor relations between the parties in the wake of his decision to abruptly terminate the power sharing deal last week.
But other opposition parties appeared to be unmoved by Mr Yousaf’s impassioned plea for support.
The dumped Greens, the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats are yet to confirm if they will even meet with the First Minister.
Last night Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who has written back to Mr Yousaf but not said if he will accept his invitation to Bute House, said: ‘This is a humiliating and embarrassing letter, in which Humza Yousaf
