Scotland First Minister Humza Yousaf is preparing to quit on Monday after he decided he wouldn’t survive a confidence vote, The Sunday Times reported.
Senior Scottish National Party members were informed of Yousaf’s decision, made over the weekend, the newspaper said. John Swinney has been approached to become interim first minister in the event of Yousaf’s departure, though the former SNP leader is reluctant to step up because of personal reasons, the Times said.
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Yousaf’s position had become increasingly tenuous after he decided to end his party’s power-sharing deal with the Greens last Thursday, saying the cooperation agreement reached after the SNP fell one seat short of a majority in the 2021 election had “served its purpose.”
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While Yousaf made clear he intends to continue to run Scotland as a minority government, the opposition Conservatives lodged a vote of no-confidence in him that was set to take place this week. The motion was supported also by the opposition Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.
Ahead of a U.K.-wide election expected in the second half of the year, Yousaf had been trying to rebuild the SNP’s image around stable government following a year of turmoil after long-time leader Nicola Sturgeon stepped down. But tensions with the Greens came to a head last week when the government scrapped a plan to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030 after concluding it was unachievable.
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