Humza Yousaf is holding a press conference at noon, Sky News and the BBC are reporting.
Humza Yousaf quits as Scotland’s first minister – as it happened
Scotland’s first minister resigns after failing to muster enough votes to survive a no confidence vote this week
Mon 29 Apr 2024 13.32 EDT
First published on Mon 29 Apr 2024 03.26 EDT- Early evening summary
- Majority of Scots wanted Yousaf voted out of office before he resigned, poll suggests
- Heaton-Harris say he's 'reassured' by Irish government's explanation of its new law affecting migrants arriving from UK
- Stephen Flynn says John Swinney only candidate to replace Yousaf 'with experience to do job and unite party'
- MPs debate e-petition saying parliament should legislate to allow assisted dying
- Tories say Swinney as first minister would represent 'absolute continuity' with Salmond, Sturgeon and Yousaf
- Swinney says he's 'overwhelmed' by the 'many, many' messages from SNP colleagues urging him to stand for leadership
- Alex Salmond claims Yousaf was blocked from doing deal with Alba to keep his job by SNP 'old guard'
- Swinney says he's 'very actively' considering standing for SNP leadership
- Ian Blackford backs John Swinney for next SNP leader
- Ash Regan says it's bizarre Yousaf chose to resign rather than strike deal with fellow pro-independence party, Alba
- Scottish Greens say they will work constructively with any SNP leader 'who shares our progressive values'
- What Yousaf said about why he resigned
- Yousaf confirms he is resigning, saying he was not willing to trade his principles just to win no-confidence vote
- Starmer claims it's 'slightly farcical' government overhauling Pip disability benefit scheme it set up itself
- Charities condemn plan to restrict Pip, saying it is a 'reckless assault on disabled people'
- Former Scottish deputy FM John Swinney says he will 'reflect', in response to calls for him to replace Yousaf
- Ongoing cash benefits could be replaced by one-off payments or vouchers under plans to change Pip disability benefit, DWP says
- Labour calls for early election in Scotland to resolve 'chaos' generated under Yousaf's leadership
- Sunak says government changing who can get Pip disability benefit to make welfare system 'sustainable for future'
- Humza Yousaf reportedly 'to resign as early as today'
- MSPs braced for announcement on Humza Yousaf's future as SNP leader ‘one way or another this morning’
![Humza Yousaf and his wife Nadia El-Nakla depart Bute House following his resignation as first minister on 29 April 2024 in Edinburgh.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/661f2302b59a4065c02b2904c7cd6c055a6cf528/0_0_1966_1180/master/1966.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none)
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- Early evening summary
- Majority of Scots wanted Yousaf voted out of office before he resigned, poll suggests
- Heaton-Harris say he's 'reassured' by Irish government's explanation of its new law affecting migrants arriving from UK
- Stephen Flynn says John Swinney only candidate to replace Yousaf 'with experience to do job and unite party'
- MPs debate e-petition saying parliament should legislate to allow assisted dying
- Tories say Swinney as first minister would represent 'absolute continuity' with Salmond, Sturgeon and Yousaf
- Swinney says he's 'overwhelmed' by the 'many, many' messages from SNP colleagues urging him to stand for leadership
- Alex Salmond claims Yousaf was blocked from doing deal with Alba to keep his job by SNP 'old guard'
- Swinney says he's 'very actively' considering standing for SNP leadership
- Ian Blackford backs John Swinney for next SNP leader
- Ash Regan says it's bizarre Yousaf chose to resign rather than strike deal with fellow pro-independence party, Alba
- Scottish Greens say they will work constructively with any SNP leader 'who shares our progressive values'
- What Yousaf said about why he resigned
- Yousaf confirms he is resigning, saying he was not willing to trade his principles just to win no-confidence vote
- Starmer claims it's 'slightly farcical' government overhauling Pip disability benefit scheme it set up itself
- Charities condemn plan to restrict Pip, saying it is a 'reckless assault on disabled people'
- Former Scottish deputy FM John Swinney says he will 'reflect', in response to calls for him to replace Yousaf
- Ongoing cash benefits could be replaced by one-off payments or vouchers under plans to change Pip disability benefit, DWP says
- Labour calls for early election in Scotland to resolve 'chaos' generated under Yousaf's leadership
- Sunak says government changing who can get Pip disability benefit to make welfare system 'sustainable for future'
- Humza Yousaf reportedly 'to resign as early as today'
- MSPs braced for announcement on Humza Yousaf's future as SNP leader ‘one way or another this morning’
Mandy Rhodes, editor of the Holyrood magazine, says she was due to interview Humza Yousaf this afternoon, but he’s cancelled.
I know this isn't all about me BUT my long-arranged 2:30pm interview with Humza Yousaf this afternoon has just been cancelled...
— mandy rhodes (@holyroodmandy) April 29, 2024
The bookmakers Coral have made Kate Forbes favourite to replace Humza Yousaf as SNP leader and first minister, based on the latest betting. In a news release this morning a spokesperson said:
Kate Forbes fell just short in the last SNP leadership race, but our betting suggests she is the favourite to replace Humza Yousaf as the next first minister.
Coral is offering these odds.
1-2 Kate Forbes (former leadership challenger and former financial secretary)
2-1 Neil Gray (NHS recovery, health and social care secretary)
7-2 Màiri McAllan (wellbeing economy, net zero and energy secretary)
5-1 Jenny Gilruth (education and skills secretary)
6-1 Ash Regan (not even in the SNP anymore – she is now an Alba MSP)
8-1 John Swinney (former deputy first minister)
16-1 Fergus Ewing (rural economy and tourist secretary)
Given what Paul Hutcheon is reporting (see 9.41am), and other stories saying some SNP MSPs want John Swinney to step in, Swinney may be under-priced. The suggestion that Ash Regan has a better chance of becoming first minister (which is what these odds imply) seems preposterous.
Paul Hutcheon, political editor of the Daily Record, says that Humza Yousaf will resign, and that some in the SNP want John Swinney, the former deputy first minister. He has posted these on X.
NEW: Humza Yousaf will resign today as First Minister ahead of a no confidence vote in his leadership, according to a senior party source.https://t.co/K6iDRvdnbZhttps://t.co/K6iDRvdnbZ
— Paul Hutcheon (@paulhutcheon) April 29, 2024
NEW: Humza Yousaf will resign today as First Minister ahead of a no confidence vote in his leadership, according to a senior party source.
2) The insider said he wants former deputy first minister John Swinney to take over
3) Two Swinney options circulating: caretaker, taking SNP through to GE; full-time leader
Labour calls for early election in Scotland to resolve 'chaos' generated under Yousaf's leadership
Ellie Reeves, the UK Labour party’s deputy national campaign coordinator, told Sky News this morning that the SNP leadership crisis meant there should be a new election for the Scottish parliament. She explained:
No-one voted for Humza Yousaf and given all of the chaos I think there should be an election up in Scotland so that people in Scotland can have their say on what’s happening up there.
At the moment they are being failed by an SNP government in Holyrood and a Conservative Government in Westminster.
In Scotland parliamentary elections are held every five years – the next one is due in 2026 – and it is not easy for the Scottish government to trigger an early one. But Scottish Labour has tabled a no confidence motion in the government as a whole. That would lead to an early Scottish election if the government resigned, and MSPs could not elect a replacement, but Scottish Labour does not have the votes to get its motion through.
Yousaf is expected to resign because he is likely to lose a second no confidence motion, tabled by the Scottish Conservatives, into his personal position as first minister.
The two motions are likely to produce different outcomes because the Scottish Greens and Alba, which has one MSP, are both pro-independence, and they don’t want an election that would (on the basis of current polling) see Holyrood lose its pro-indepedence majority. But they are both unhappy with Yousaf’s leadership. The Scottish Greens have said they will definitely back the Tory no confidence motion, and Alba has threatened to back it too unless Yousaf makes a range of policy concessions.
Sunak says government changing who can get Pip disability benefit to make welfare system 'sustainable for future'
The Department for Work and Pensions issued a news release this morning about the green paper on changes to disability benefits being published later today. The plans affect the personal independence payment (Pip), a non-means tested benefit paid to disabled people to help cover the extra costs they incur because of their disability.
In the news release, which is not available online yet, the DWP says:
The Modernising Support green paper will explore how our welfare system could be redesigned to ensure people with disabilities and long-term health conditions get the support they need to achieve the best outcomes, with an approach that focuses support on those with the greatest needs and extra costs.
The UK’s health landscape has changed since personal independence payment (PIP) was introduced in 2013 with the intention that it would be a more sustainable benefit that would support disabled people to live independently by helping with the extra costs they face.
However, the caseload and costs are now spiralling. There are now 2.6 million people of working age claiming PIP and DLA [disability living allowance]– with 33,000 new awards for PIP each month which is more than double the rate before the pandemic. This is expected to cost the taxpayer £28bn a year by 2028/29 – a 110% increase in spending since 2019.
This is in part fuelled by the rise in people receiving PIP for mental health conditions such as mixed anxiety and depressive disorders, with monthly awards doubling from 2,200 to 5,300 a month since 2019.
Since 2015, the proportion of the caseload receiving the highest rate of PIP has increased from 25% to 36%. And many more people being awarded PIP now have mental health conditions than when it was first introduced.
In a statement included in the release, Rishi Sunak said:
It’s clear that our disability benefits system isn’t working in the way it was intended, and we’re determined to reform it to ensure it’s sustainable for the future, so we can continue delivering support to those who genuinely need it most.
Humza Yousaf reportedly 'to resign as early as today'
BBC Scotland is reporting that Humza Yousaf will resign as early as today.
BREAKING: Humza Yousaf to resign as Scotland's first ministerhttps://t.co/R2DTj7xk9j
— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) April 29, 2024
![Staff have been arriving this morning at Bute House, Charlotte Square, official residence of the Scottish first minister.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/131ef19d090199290418097df66f74a3b315fed5/0_0_5873_3915/master/5873.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none)
Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Greens’ co-leader, told BBC Radio Scotland this morning that, although he thought Humza Yousaf had to resign, he did not take any pleasure in saying that. Harvie said:
I do want to say there is a human impact to all of this, a human element to all of this, I don’t bear Humza Yousaf personal ill will or malice in any way at all and I take no pleasure at all, none of us in the Greens do, in turbulence and chaos over the last week or two.
But it is clear that Humza Yousaf, in the decision that he made last week has broken trust with the Scottish Greens, cannot command a majority in parliament and we stand ready to work with someone who can.
Because the SNP are by-far-and-away the largest party in Parliament, they’re just short of a majority, they are capable of providing stable minority government, they have a responsibility to do so.
I think opposition parties have a responsibility to play their part, it’s been done before, it can be done again, but Humza Yousaf, I’m really sorry to say, is no longer in a position to do that, because it has to depend on trust.
MSPs braced for announcement on Humza Yousaf's future as SNP leader ‘one way or another this morning’
Good morning. This here is intense speculation that Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, will resign, perhaps as early as today, ahead of a no confidence vote scheduled for later this week. On Friday, when there were also reports that Yousaf was considering resigning after his decision to collapse the SNP’s power-sharing deal with the Greens backfired, Yousaf gave a series of interviews insisting that he was not quitting and that he was confident of winning the vote. This morning, though, the situation seems to have changed.
Kieran Andrews, the Scottish political editor of the Times, ignited the latest round of Yousaf resignation speculation with a report last night saying:
Senior SNP figures have been told the nationalist leader decided over the weekend that there is no way for him to survive this week’s vote of no confidence and he may stand down on Monday …
A close friend said: “Humza knows what’s best for the country and the party. He is first party activist and a party man, and that’s why he knows it’s time for someone else.
In her report this morning my colleague Libby Brooks says no final decision has yet been taken, but it could come soon.
In an interview with the Today programe this morning Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, restated his view that Yousaf had to go. He said:
I don’t think Humza Yousaf any more is in a position to be able to lead … I don’t think there is anything that Humza Yousaf will be able to say to restore the trust he has broken.
Asked about Yousaf’s position, the SNP MSP Michelle Thomson told BBC Radio Scotland that she expected clarification within hours. She said:
I’m hearing the same rumours [that the first minister is considering stepping down] and I think we’re all waiting to see what the actual position is.
I guess the rumours suggest that something is afoot, but I honestly can’t clarify because I’ve had no update nor, as I understand, have my MSP group, so I guess we’ll all hear definitively one way or another this morning.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.15am: Rishi Sunak is due to take part in a PM Connect Q&A in Essex.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
12.50pm: Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, is due to host a press conference following a meeting with Micheál Martin, the Irish foreign minister and deputy PM. The two are meeting at the latest British Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIC) summit in London.
2pm: David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is giving a speech on growth at a World Economic Forum session in Saudia Arabia.
4.30pm: MPs are holding a debate in Westminster Hall prompted by an e-petition, signed by more than 200,000 people, saying the Commons should get a vote on legalising assisted dying. But there will be no vote in today’s Westminster Hall debate, which could run until 7.30pm.
Also, the Department for Work and Pensions is today publishing a green paper on plans to reform disability benefits. And Keir Starmer is on a visit with Dan Poulter, the MP who defected from the Conservatives to Labour at the weekend.
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