Yousaf was going through a threatening collection of no-confidence votes within the Scottish Parliament this week after he broke the SNP’s power-sharing settlement with the Scottish Inexperienced Get together.
With out the Greens, the SNP is left with a minority authorities — and Yousaf seems to be the primary sufferer of that new actuality.
The SNP and the Greens had beforehand served collectively beneath a deal struck by Yousaf’s predecessor, which bolstered the Greens’ agenda of quickly decarbonizing Scotland to achieve “web zero” emissions of greenhouse gases.
The difficulty for the SNP was that Scotland nonetheless has a fossil gasoline economic system based mostly on its extraction of oil and gasoline within the North Sea.
The Greens additionally wished to press forward on bolstering hire controls and banning so-called conversion remedy, whereas the SNP wished to “pause” entry to puberty blockers for these beneath 18 years of age.
Yousaf stated he would proceed to function first minister whereas his get together elects his alternative. It has 28 days to take action.
With the announcement, the Scottish Nationwide Get together finds itself at a brand new low.
The long-serving former first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, stepped down in February 2023, suggesting she was bored with the highlight and missed getting a espresso with a pal or going for a peaceable stroll.
“In my head and in my coronary heart, I do know that point is now,” Sturgeon stated.
Final week, Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, was charged with embezzlement of funds from the Scottish Nationwide Get together, which can have included the acquisition of a $120,000 leisure automobile discovered parked at his mom’s dwelling.
Murrell had served as chief govt of the SNP for 22 years. Sturgeon herself was questioned by police detectives however launched with no prices filed. The couple’s dwelling was searched.
In his resignation remarks, Yousaf stated that as a boy born to Pakistani immigrants in Glasgow, “individuals who appeared like me weren’t in positions of energy.”
Immediately, “the proof is sort of on the contrary,” Yousaf stated, pointing to himself, in addition to the primary minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething, who was born in Zambia, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose dad and mom of Indian descent immigrated to Britain from East Africa within the Sixties.
After stepping down, Yousaf will proceed to serve from the backbenches of Scotland’s Parliament.