Humza Yousaf is considering resigning as Scotland’s first minister as early as today, Sky News understands.
A senior source has said the embattled SNP leader could “call it quits” today ahead of a key vote of no confidence later this week.
Mr Yousaf is facing two no confidence votes at Holyrood in the coming days after the collapse of his power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens on Thursday.
The 39-year-old, who now runs a minority administration in Edinburgh, sacked the Greens on Thursday and they have joined the opposition in confirming they will vote to oust him.
Talks had been planned with the Alba party, which is led by now-bitter rival Alex Salmond. Its only MSP, Ash Regan – who defected from the SNP last October – was set to cast the deciding vote and determine Mr Yousaf’s future.
The pair had been due to meet this week, with Ms Regan bringing a set of demands as her price of agreement.
But, some senior figures within the SNP had said publicly and privately that would be an electoral disaster and seriously harm the nationalist cause.
One MP said it would go down like a “cup of cold sick”.
Mr Yousaf is facing a no confidence vote on his leadership of Scotland, and a separate motion of no confidence has also been tabled in the entire Scottish government.
Sky News understands Mr Yousaf could now walk on Monday ahead of the vote. However, no final decision has been made.
His tune appears to have changed after he insisted during a walkabout in Fife on Saturday he had no intention of resigning.
A source told Sky News on Monday morning the first minister said Mr Salmond pulling the strings behind the scenes would be “doing a deal with the devil”.
The Alba Party’s Westminster leader, MP Neale Hanvey, told Sky News he thinks Mr Yousaf’s “hand is being forced from within the SNP“.
“It seems that the internal manoeuvrings within the SNP have made it impossible for the First Minister to continue,” he said.
“I don’t think he would be even considering resigning if he had the support of his parliamentary group and I think reading between the lines, that’s not something that he can depend on now and that’s possibly why he’s been forced to seriously consider resigning.“
In Westminster, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride told Sky News: “It does seem an extraordinary mess that he’s managed to get him and the SNP into. That they are now potentially going to be beholden to Alba.
“If you look at the SNP’s record, their obsession with independence, I’m afraid, has led to very poor outcomes when it comes to health, when it comes to education and a number of other areas.”
The SNP had been in a power-sharing agreement with the Greens since 2021 which gave the SNP a majority at Holyrood, as without it the party – then led by Nicola Sturgeon – would have had to operate as a minority administration.
But there had been mounting tensions between the two parties, which ended when the government decided to ditch its flagship target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 after accepting that it is now “out of reach”.
Before that there had been friction over the decision to pause the prescription of new puberty blockers to under-18s at Scotland’s only gender clinic, resulting in the Greens announcing they would have a vote on the future of the power-sharing deal.
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