Humza Yousaf quits as Scotland’s first minister – as it happened

The Scottish Liberal Democrats say the resignation of Humza Yousaf means the SNP government is “another step closer towards the end”.

Fergus Ewing, the SNP MSP and former rural economy and tourism secretary in the Scottish government, told Radio 4’s the World at One that Kate Forbes was “head and shoulders” above any other potential candidate to replace Humza Yousaf. Ewing said:

Kate Forbes, without a shadow of a doubt, is head and shoulders above the other candidates and she also is not associated with the problems that I think caused Humza eventually to resign.

Forbes, a former finance secretary in the Scottish government, was narrowly beaten by Yousaf in the leadership contest last year. She won 48% of the vote. But she declined to serve in Yousaf’s administration after being offered a post her allies described as insultingly junior.

Forbes is a member of the socially conservative Free Church of Scotland and she did not support some of the SNP government’s pro-trans policies, such as the gender recognition reform bill, that were particularly important to the Scottish Greens.

She also suggested that some of Yousaf government’s net zero policies were too ambitious.

Labour says the SNP government at Holyrood should call an early Scottish election in the light of the leadership chaos. (See 9.20am.) But John Swinney, who says he is considering standing to replace Humza Yousaf as first minister, has ruled that out. He told Sky News:

Parliaments like the Scottish parliament are elected for a fixed term. It’s a five-year period and we should see out that five-year period.

Yes, there’s changes of personnel and leadership during that period. But the parliament was elected for five years and it should sit for five years.

Nicola Sturgeon was first minister at the time of the last Scottish elections in 2021, and whoever replaces Humza Yousaf will be the third first minister in three years. The UK parliament is also on its third prime minister since it was elected in 2019.

There is some talk that, if John Swinney were to stand for the SNP leadership, he might take over without a contest as a unity candidate.

But in his World at One interview Alex Salmond, the Alba leader and former SNP first minister, said it would be a mistake for his old party to avoid a contest. He said:

I think the one thing you would have to have for a new leader is at least [they] would have to have a mandate from the SNP membership.

I think the idea of ushering in another continuity, coronated candidate, given that that person hasn’t either faced the electorate or the party, would be impossible …

I do think the SNP membership should have a choice.

This is what John Swinney told Sky News about how he was actively considering standing to replace Humza Yousaf as first minister. (See 1.40pm.)

I’m giving very careful consideration to standing to be the leader of the SNP.

I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed by the requests that have been made for me to do that, with many, many messages from many colleagues across the party. So I’m giving that issue very active consideration.

And it’s like they’ll have more to say about that in the days to come.

When it was put to him that it sounded as if he would be standing, Swinney replied:

I’m going to give it consideration. I’ve got lots of things to think about. There’s the whole question of my family and I have to make sure that I do the right thing by my family, they are are precious to me. I have to do the right thing by my party and by my country. So there’s lots to be thought about. And I’ll give all of that consideration in the days to come.

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Alex Salmond, the Alba leader and former Scottish first minister, told Radio 4’s World at One that he thought Humza Yousaf wanted to do a deal with his party to win the proposd no confidence vote, but that he was blocked by colleagues in the SNP.

In his resignation statement Yousaf implied a deal with Alba would be against his principles. (See 12.33pm.)

But Salmond told the programme:

This idea that Humza Yusuf didn’t want to do a deal with Alba is simply untrue.

At 7.30 this morning he was trying to do a deal with Alba and complimented the proposals we’d made as very reasonable.

The reason he didn’t do a deal with Alba is there were forces within his own party who stopped them doing it. Let’s call them the old guard.

See, the ultimate problem for Humza is he wasn’t actually in control of his own party, which is why he wasn’t able to survive over the next week.

Salmond said Yousaf called Alba this morning at 7.30am and said that he was trying to carry on as first minister. Ash Regan, the Alba MSP, was waiting for a meeting with Yousaf, Salmond said.

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John Swinney, who led the SNP between 2000 and 2004 (in a four-year gap in the 24-year period during which the party was otherwise led by Alex Salmond) and who served as deputy first minister under Nicola Sturgeon, has told Sky News he is “very actively’ onsidering standing for the leadership. This is from Connor Gillies from Sky News.

The bookmakers Ladbrokes says it has stopped taking bets on John Swinney for next SNP leader. A Ladbrokes spokesperson said:

It’s been a busy start to the week in the world of Scottish politics, and with plenty of punters backing John Swinney to take over from Humza Yousaf, we’ve been forced to temporarily pull the plug on bets on the next SNP leader.

This morning you could get odds of 8-1 on Swinney. (See 9.53am.)

Ian Blackford, the former SNP leader at Westminster, has said that he would like to see John Swinney take over from Humza Yousaf. Blackford told the BBC:

[Swinney] certainly is an individual that I believe carries widespread respect in the party across the parliament, and indeed the country, a long experience. [He is] someone that has operated right through the period of the SNP being in government, of course, as deputy leader under Nicola Sturgeon.

If anyone has the qualities, the capabilities to lead us not just in the short term, but right through the electoral cycle, then John has these characteristics.

In terms of where we are here, and the leadership that we need to show, showing that we can win in the Scottish parliament, get our legislative programme through, fight the Westminster election and then go into the Scottish election in 2026, John is the man that, I think, has what it takes to lead us.

Humza Yousaf implied in his resignation statement that he was resigning because he was not willing to strike a deal with the Alba party that could have led to him winning the no confidence vote due later this week. (See 12.33pm.) Ash Regan, the only Alba MSP in the Scottish parliament, said it was odd that some in the SNP were so opposed to a party also committed to independence. She told Sky News:

The irony will not be lost on many that the event that has cost Humza Yousaf his job was removing the Greens from government- something most people in Scotland agreed with.

Alba party were willing to work in the best interests of Scotland to put independence back at the heart of government, protect the rights of women and girls, and to get the government back onto a competent footing.

The Greens were willing to vote with the Tories and bizarrely some forces in Humza Yousaf’s own party would rather see him resign than deal with a party who really want to advance independence.

However, a new SNP leader and a new first minister will not change parliamentary arithmetic. I continue to stand ready to work in the best interests of Scotland and to advance the cause of Scottish independence.

Regan’s comment overlooks the fact that there is reason why SNP MPs distrust Alba, and it has nothing, or almost nothing, to do with independence. It is because Alba is run by Alex Salmond, the former first minister who quit the SNP as a result of allegations that led to him going on trial accused of serious sexual offences. Salmond was acquitted of all charges. But he remained furious about how Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP government dealt with the allegations, and the feud led to acrimonious legal proceedings, some of which remain unresolved.

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