{"id":37973,"date":"2024-04-29T07:20:16","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T07:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/29\/humza-yousaf-considering-calling-it-quits-as-scotlands-first-minister-as-early-as-today\/"},"modified":"2024-04-29T07:20:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T07:20:16","slug":"humza-yousaf-considering-calling-it-quits-as-scotlands-first-minister-as-early-as-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/29\/humza-yousaf-considering-calling-it-quits-as-scotlands-first-minister-as-early-as-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Humza Yousaf considering ‘calling it quits’ as Scotland’s first minister as early as today"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Humza<\/div>\n
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Humza Yousaf is considering resigning as Scotland’s first minister as early as today, Sky News understands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A senior source has said the embattled SNP leader could “call it quits” later today ahead of a key vote of no confidence later this week.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> <\/strong>on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The pair had been due to meet this week, with Ms Regan bringing a set of demands as her price of agreement.<\/p>\n

But, some senior figures within the SNP had said publicly and privately that would be an electoral disaster and seriously harm the nationalist cause.<\/p>\n

One MP said it would go down like a “cup of cold sick”.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Sky News understands Mr Yousaf could now walk on Monday ahead of the vote. However, no final decision has been made.<\/p>\n

His tune appears to have changed after he insisted during a walkabout in Fife on Saturday he had no intention of resigning.<\/p>\n

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”.<\/p>\n

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“.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It seems that the internal manoeuvrings within the SNP have made it impossible for the First Minister to continue,” he said.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

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Humza Yousaf’s choices are rapidly evaporating<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

This could be it. This could be the moment it all comes crashing down for Humza Yousaf despite repeatedly telling Sky News at the weekend he wasn’t going anywhere.<\/p>\n

The reality is his choices are evaporating.<\/p>\n

I had an early morning call with a senior source close to the First Minister and they said resignation is now on the table as early as today.<\/p>\n

That is a dramatic change in his position after figures were absolutely rejecting any suggestion of walking away on Friday. <\/p>\n

“He is coming out fighting,” one told me.<\/p>\n

The writing has been on the wall though as Alba Party boss Alex Salmond gleefully went on the Sunday TV rounds. <\/p>\n

Let’s remember the SNP has a long-running bitter feud with its former leader. Salmond and Yousaf do not speak.<\/p>\n

There are questions about whether Salmond has overplayed his hand.<\/p>\n

Publicly, the First Minister is inviting the Alba’s only MSP Ash Regan for talks to win their support in the looming confidence votes. She has a list of demands.<\/p>\n

Privately, this morning a source said: “It is unlikely to happen. It is like doing a deal with the devil.”<\/p>\n

The other option could be to stare Alba down when it comes to the crunch vote. Call their bluff and let Alba be a pro-independence party which takes down an independence-led government.<\/p>\n

There is serious game playing going on.<\/p>\n

But those close to the First Minister are talking about calling it quits today.<\/p>\n

This could be a major day for UK politics. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

“<\/em>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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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”.<\/p>\n

Before that there had been friction over the decision to pause the prescription of new puberty blockers to under-18s<\/a><\/strong> at Scotland’s only gender clinic, resulting in the Greens announcing they would have a vote on the future of the power-sharing deal<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app<\/strong><\/a>. You can also follow @SkyNews on X<\/strong><\/a> or subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/strong><\/a> to keep up with the latest news. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Humza Yousaf is considering resigning as Scotland’s first minister as early as today, Sky News understands.\u00a0 A senior source has said the embattled SNP leader could “call it quits” later 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37974,"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\/1920x1080\/skynews-humza-yousaf-scotland_6534860.jpg?20240427123941","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[8205,1402,17552,2124,13799,17431,1603,17553],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37973"}],"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=37973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37975,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37973\/revisions\/37975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}