Humza Yousaf set to resign as Scotland's first minister after coming to the ... trends now
Humza Yousaf is set to resign as Scotland's first minister after coming to the conclusion 'there is no way for him to survive this week's vote of no confidence', according to a report.
Senior figures in the SNP have been told the nationalist leader decided over the weekend that there is no way for him to survive and he may stand down on Monday.
It comes as he had been frantically trying to bolster his support after triggering a meltdown by summarily ditching his Green coalition partners.
They have now pledged to back a no confidence motion this week, leaving the parliamentary arithmetic looking bleak for his chances of survival.
A close friend of the leader told The Times: 'Humza knows what's best for the country and the party. He is first party activist and a party man, and that's why he knows it's time for someone else.'
Senior figures in the SNP have been told Humza Yousaf decided over the weekend that there is no way for him to survive and he may stand down on Monday
It comes as he had been frantically trying to bolster his support after triggering a meltdown by summarily ditching his Green coalition partners. Mr Yousaf pictured on Friday in Dundee
Alba defector Ash Regan holds the key vote needed to save Mr Yousaf's job
The paper reports that former SNP leader and long-time Nicola Sturgeon ally John Swinney has been approached by senior party figures to become an interim first minister if Mr Yousaf is forced from office.
The SNP leader, who took over from Sturgeon in March 2023, is facing two votes of no confidence, one in him personally from the Tories and another in his government from Labour.
Excluding the presiding officer there are 128 MSPs in total, but the SNP only has 63 votes while the other opposition parties have 65.
Over the weekend Mr Yousaf has been exploring options to convince one of the opposition party MSPs to vote to save his government.
If he managed to get to 64 votes and tie the vote, the presiding officer is meant to back the status quo, so he would be able to hold on.
The most likely candidate he faced the chance of converting was Ash Regan, the sole MSP in Alex Salmond's Alba Party.
Former SNP leader and long-time Nicola Sturgeon ally John Swinney (pictured) has been approached by senior party figures to become an interim first minister if Mr Yousaf is forced from office
Mr Swinney was Deputy First Minister of Scotland under Nicola Sturgeon from 2017 to 2023
Mr Yousaf announced the end of the agreement, accompanied by a sign language interpreter, on Thursday
Humza Yousaf speaking from Bute House on Thursday, the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland, as the SNP withdrew from the agreement it signed with the Greens
Mr Yousaf speaking in parliament after the deal collapsed on Thursday over what the Greens had seen as a gradual side-lining of their policies by the SNP
Scottish Green Party co-leaders Patrick Harvie (left) and Lorna Slater (right) arrive for First Minister's Questions on Thursday. The Greens have said they will support a vote of no confidence in the First Minister
Furious Greens co-leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie after being dumped on Thursday
Mr Yousaf's future is reliant on whether he can persuade Ash Regan (pictured on Thursday), the former SNP leadership candidate and now Alba MSP, to back him
Mr Yousaf previously described her departure from the SNP in October last year as 'no great loss'.
Ms Regan, a former SNP leadership rival to Mr Yousaf, wrote to him with a list of priorities over the weekend, including 'defending the rights of women and children'. That is thought to mean accepting the results of the Cass review, which criticised gender therapies, in full.
The pair went head-to-head during the SNP leadership campaign, where she called for more extreme independence tactics and expressed her complete opposition to both transgender ideology and the Greens in government.
Her stance on gender reforms also led her to quit the cabinet during the voting stage in one of the first displays of discontent within the SNP on the trans issue.
JK Rowling even waded into the row, saying it is 'karma' that the First
