Scotland’s first minister Yousaf quits after a year

Edinburgh, United Kingdom – AFP

Humza Yousaf announced his resignation as Scotland’s first minister on Monday, before he was due to face two confidence votes this week sparked by his ditching of junior coalition partners in a row over climate policy.

The 39-year-old quit following a turbulent year as head of the devolved administration in Edinburgh, during which support for his pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) has fallen.

Yousaf said he had “underestimated” the hurt he had caused by unceremoniously ending the SNP’s power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens in the Scottish parliament last week.

His government had earlier abandoned ambitious targets for the transition to net-zero carbon emissions, angering the Greens.

The opposition Scottish Conservatives then lodged a vote of no-confidence in Yousaf, which was set for Wednesday and which the first minister was at risk of losing.

Scottish Labour also lodged another no-confidence vote in his government.

The Tories, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens all said they would vote against Yousaf in the personal vote, forcing him to seek the backing of the sole lawmaker from the pro-independence Alba party.

Yousaf — the first Muslim leader of a major UK political party — told reporters at his official residence that he thought winning was “absolutely possible”.

But he added that he was “not willing to trade in my values or principles or do deals with whomever simply for retaining power”.

“I have concluded that repairing our relationships across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm,” Yousaf said.