FM STANDS GROUND Yousaf invites rival leaders to crunch talks

HUMZA Yousaf has said it would be a “poor choice” for the Scottish Greens to back the motion of no confidence in him, after writing to the leaders of Scotland’s political parties to seek “common ground”.

It comes as the Alba Party, whose sole MSP Ash Regan could hold a vote crucial to the First Minister’s future, held an emergency meeting to discuss the way forward.

The First Minister is attempting to build bridges with the other political leaders at Holyrood, inviting them to talks at his official residence.

He hopes to hold separate meetings with each group at Bute House in Edinburgh to discuss how they can “contribute constructively”, while acknowledging that there are “strong feelings” about the upcoming confidence votes.

A non-binding vote will be held on Yousaf as First Minister – which will require 65 votes against. That is the combined total of Tory, Labour, LibDem, Green and Alba MSPs who will cast their vote.

If Regan were to back Yousaf, or the Greens were to abstain, that would prevent the total of 65 votes being reached – assuming Yousaf secures all 63 SNP votes.

Former leadership rival Kate Forbes wrote in The National yesterday urging her party colleagues to back the party chief.

Labour have also lodged a motion of no-confidence in the Scottish Government, which could lead to an early election – but this is not expected to receive the same support, with the Greens having focused their ire at Yousaf directly rather than the wider government, calling for a new leader.

Yousaf sent letters to the Tories, Labour, Greens, LibDems and Alba on Friday night.

He terminated the Bute House Agreement power-sharing deal between the SNP and Scottish Greens on Thursday, leading to the smaller pro-independence party announcing it would back the motion of no confidence in his leadership.

Yousaf spoke to Sky News yesterday, saying he hoped to hear from the other Holyrood leaders soon. It was put to Yousaf that given the lack of support from the Greens, Regan could be crucial to his survival.

He said: “That would be really disappointing if that is the Greens’ position. As I say, I’ve reached out to them, they are saying publicly that they’re going to support a Conservative motion against a First Minister, an independence government.

“I think that would be, I think, a poor choice to make. So of course, I have written to Ash Regan as well. I look forward to speaking to her too.”

In his letters, Yousaf emphasised that the Scottish Parliament has previous experience of minority administrations which had delivered benefits for “people, communities and businesses”.

He said: “I am writing to all Holyrood party groups to ask them to meet me next week, in separate meetings, to discuss their concerns and indeed priorities, in a hopefully constructive spirit.”

The meetings at Bute House would “discuss matters and establish the scope for common ground”, he said.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who lodged the motion of no confidence in Yousaf, said: “This is a humiliating and embarrassing letter, in which Humza Yousaf is begging to be allowed to keep his job.

“His belated abandonment of the Bute House Agreement with the toxic Greens – which he was backing just two days before he finally decided to pull the plug – does nothing to undo the immense damage it has caused.”

The Scottish Greens said they would respond formally to the First Minister in due course, but otherwise, their position is unchanged.

Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie has said it is “pretty clear” Yousaf will not be able to unite Holyrood – urging the SNP to consider finding a replacement for him.

Speaking on Friday, Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar said: “I am more than happy to engage with people of all parties, but it is clear that Humza Yousaf is out of time. He is leading a chaotic and divided political party and an incompetent government that is failing the people of Scotland every single day, and one conversation isn’t going to change that.”

FINE sentiments about building consensus and working for the good of the electorate were spoken ahead of the Scottish Parliament 25 years ago.

It was all about how parliamentary business would be conducted differently from Westminster and this was symbolised by the new horseshoe-shaped debating chamber which was designed for civilised discussion rather than the vitriol slung across the aisle at the “Mother of Parliaments” down south.

Fast-forward those 25 years to First Minister’s Questions on Thursday and any onlooker would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between that and Prime Minister’s Questions at Westminster.

“The acceptance of minority and coalition government was something that was baked into the Parliament when it was created to make it more representative and less partisan than Westminster, but that seems to have been abandoned, as has the notion of a responsible opposition,” said Richard Finlay, professor of Scottish History at Strathclyde University.

“A big part of this is the press which is partisan and doesn’t hold the opposition to the same standards as the Government. The opposition in Scotland seems to view its role as sabotaging legislation rather than amending or improving it.”

However, political scientist Richard Parry, honourary fellow at Edinburgh University, said it was always going to end up this way.

“It was assumed that no single party would end up with an overall majority so they would be compelled to do deals, but the SNP proved that is not the case and that you can win a majority with less than 50% of the vote,” he said.

As a result, party discipline has become key, with MSPs more inclined to vote along party lines,

FORCING the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament could be a vote-loser, a political expert has warned. A motion of no confidence in the Scottish Government has been lodged by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar – but Professor Murray Leith said a Holyrood election at this time might not go down well with voters.

“They might think there are more important issues right now,” said Leith, professor of political science at the University of the West of Scotland.

“Party politics is one thing but you don’t want to upset the electorate as a whole and any party that brings down the Scottish Parliament or seeks to bring it down might not resonate with Scottish voters at the moment.

“An election could be called any time south of the Border between now and January and I wonder how the people of Scotland would respond to one here.”

If the vote of no confidence passes, then First Minister Humza Yousaf will have to resign and if Holyrood cannot agree on a replacement within 28 days, an election will be called.

Labour’s no-confidence motion in the Scottish Government and the Tories’ no-confidence motion in the First Minister were lodged after Yousaf ended the Bute House power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens on Thursday. This pre-empted a vote by Scottish Green members on whether the agreement should continue after climate targets were ditched.

“The ending of the Bute agreement caught quite a few people by surprise as the First Minister was expected to wait and see what the Green membership voted on,” said Professor Leith.

Right-wingers in the SNP had already been calling for the agreement to be dumped but he said this did not mean the party was suddenly going to lurch to the right.

“The SNP’s sole reason for existing is for an independent Scotland and that cuts across ideological lines,” he said. “The SNP have very broad wings but at the same time, they consistently describe themselves as a centre-left party. That is where they get a lot of votes from and there are a significant number of MSPs who are not on the right of the party.

“Fergus Ewing was probably one of the happier people last week but I don’t see the SNP suddenly lurching to the right, given the broad nature of the support they get.”

The big issue for the SNP now is that the Greens are lined up with the opposition even though they have been broadly supportive since the SNP took power in 2007, according to Richard Parry, Honorary Fellow at Edinburgh University’s Centre on Constitutional Change

“The First Minister might build back in a way for them but I think he handled this brutally, making Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie walk out of Bute House with all the cameras on them,” he said.

“They had been trying to help him in the last week so I am not sure why he treated them so badly.

“They are hurt, and Lorna Slater put in strong words how hurt she felt – I quite understand that because it is a brutal thing to lose your job as a minister. You get kind of used to your private office and your advisers as well so I think it could be quite a while before the Greens come round.

“Humza behaved quite ungraciously to the Greens, I think, but you can’t have a tail wagging a dog and the Green tail seemed to be getting a bit strong in recent times.”