{"id":35611,"date":"2024-04-25T23:47:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T23:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/ash-regan-humza-yousafs-defeated-leadership-rival-could-hold-the-key-to-his-political-fate\/"},"modified":"2024-04-25T23:47:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T23:47:05","slug":"ash-regan-humza-yousafs-defeated-leadership-rival-could-hold-the-key-to-his-political-fate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/ash-regan-humza-yousafs-defeated-leadership-rival-could-hold-the-key-to-his-political-fate\/","title":{"rendered":"Ash Regan: Humza Yousaf’s defeated leadership rival could hold the key to his political fate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This has become a political bloodbath for Humza Yousaf.<\/p>\n

He began the day under pressure to stamp his authority at the looming prospect of the SNP’s government partners, the Greens, walking away in a row over ditched climate targets<\/a><\/strong> and growing scepticism of the Cass report on gender identity services for children<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The SNP leader and Scotland’s first minister wanted to reset the narrative, to show he is in control. He hauled Green ministers in for an 8am appointment, which I understand was very tense. They were sacked on the spot.<\/p>\n

In a hastily-arranged news conference, Mr Yousaf told me I was wrong to suggest he is not really pulling the strings. Let’s remember he had hailed the SNP-Green alliance as “worth its weight in gold” fewer than 48 hours earlier.<\/p>\n

Whatever his early morning intentions, it is not unreasonable to suggest it has spectacularly backfired.<\/p>\n

His SNP premiership is in peril, with the newly-ousted Greens promising to back the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats in a vote of no confidence next week.<\/p>\n

One Green source told me: “We’re going to f*** them for this.”<\/p>\n

It is mind-blowing that this is a party which was partly running the country fewer than 24 hours ago.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
Political future of Scotland’s first minister in the balance<\/a>
SNP’s power-sharing agreement has ‘served its purpose’<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n Humza Yousaf. Pic Reuters
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If we cast our minds back to the bitter SNP leadership campaign last year, the loser Ash Regan quit the party months later and defected to Alex Salmond’s Alba Party.<\/p>\n

She has sat on the fringes of Holyrood ever since, ignored by her former colleagues.<\/p>\n

There was talk of her even being moved to a cupboard-style office. Some within the SNP completely washed their hands of her and almost brushed her off as a joke.<\/p>\n

The irony is that Ms Regan is now likely to have the casting vote, given the SNP is now a minority administration and the rest of the opposition have confirmed they are plotting to oust the beleaguered first minister.<\/p>\n

Ms Regan finds herself as possibly the most powerful woman in Scotland.<\/p>\n

Alba insiders have told me her demands could include the Scottish government ditching the controversial gender recognition reforms completely.<\/p>\n

The prospect of Mr Yousaf possibly looking at bowing to a party with one Holyrood politician is embarrassing at best and a full-scale humiliation at worst. But will it happen?<\/p>\n

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Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News<\/p>\n

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The SNP has its fair share of troubles, given the current police probe examining its finances, but Thursday’s developments take everything to a whole new level.<\/p>\n

Critics suggest it calls into question the entire strategy in the government engine room and leaves the leadership drowning in chaos.<\/p>\n

Is a Holyrood election on the cards? We could find out next week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This has become a political bloodbath for Humza Yousaf. He began the day under pressure to stamp his authority at the looming prospect of the SNP’s government partners, the Greens, walking away in a row over ditched climate targets and growing scepticism of the Cass report on gender identity services for children. The SNP leader […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/04\/768x432\/skynews-humza-yousaf-snp-bute_6532838.jpg?20240425125142","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[38799,32657,18218,2948,17552,2733,2122,234,38800,1292,18443],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35613,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35611\/revisions\/35613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}