Scottish power-sharing deal collapses over scrapped climate targets

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Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has scrapped his party’s power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens and vowed to continue to govern as a minority government.

At a press conference at Bute House, Edinburgh, the Scottish National party leader said the deal with the Greens had “served its purpose” and argued the break would allow the SNP to govern “on our policy terms”.

The collapse of the power-sharing agreement came after Yousaf last week dumped some of Scotland’s climate targets, sparking fury from the Greens.

“We will now step up our ambition, but as a minority government — that will be tough,” he said, while noting that SNP governments had previously governed without a majority. “We need to speak to the country with one voice, so today marks a new beginning for the SNP.”

Yousaf said his agenda would span growing the economy and supporting business, improving the NHS, while tackling child poverty and the cost of living crisis. “And, for the avoidance of any doubt, tackling the climate emergency,” he added.

The SNP-Green coalition was formed after the 2021 Holyrood election when the SNP came up one short of the 65 MSPs needed to form a majority. 

Yousaf on Thursday said “emotions were raw” but pledged to work with the Greens and other opposition parties on legislation.

“[The agreement] has served its purpose,” he said. “It is time for the SNP to navigate parliament as a minority government.”

Yousaf denied that the decision had exposed the SNP’s weakness and insisted that he had shown “leadership”.

Disunity within the SNP was exposed this week when a group of six nationalist MSPs, including former leadership candidate Kate Forbes, rebelled against a justice bill that would pilot judge-only rape trials.

The Scottish Greens confirmed the end of the Bute House agreement — and said Yousaf’s SNP had “sold out future generations”.

Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said that “by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political co-operation, he can no longer be trusted”.

Slater said the SNP had repeatedly let down the Green party’s attempts to introduce a “fairer, greener Scotland”, including in policies on oil and gas and the country’s 2030 emissions reduction targets.

With the end of the power-sharing arrangement, Slater and her co-leader Patrick Harvie were sacked from cabinet.

Yousaf said the agreement had delivered successes, with the benefits of co-operation having outweighed the compromises involved in coalition government.

“However, the balance has shifted,” he said, citing instability in parliament. “Going forward, it is in the best interests of Scotland to pursue a different arrangement.”