The historic power-sharing agreement between the Scottish National party and Scottish Greens is to end after a crisis over the government’s climate strategy.
Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, said he had told the Scottish Green co-leaders he was terminating the Bute House agreement with immediate effect.
It means the Green co-leaders, Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie, are no longer part of the Scottish government and the SNP will operate as a minority administration.
The Bute House agreement was signed in August 2021 by the then SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, and Harvie, bringing the Greens into government for the first time in the UK.
Yousaf, Sturgeon’s successor as first minister, convened an emergency cabinet meeting early on Thursday after SNP backbenchers began openly attacking the deal.
During a press conference at Bute House, his official residence in Edinburgh, the first minister said: “It is no longer guaranteeing a stable arrangement in parliament, the events of recent days have made that clear, and therefore, after careful consideration, I believe that going forward it is in the best interest of the people of Scotland to pursue a different arrangement.
“That is why, following a discussion with my cabinet this morning, I have formally notified Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater that I am terminating the Bute House agreement with immediate effect.”
He said the day marked a “new beginning for this SNP government”.
In a statement issued half an hour before the first minister’s press conference, Slater accused the SNP of “selling out future generations to appease the most reactionary forces in the country” by walking away from the agreement.
Slater accused the SNP of betraying the electorate, and added that “by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political cooperation, he can no longer be trusted”.
Appealing to SNP members “who do care about climate, trans rights, independence and our country”, Slater asked them to consider “if they are in the right party for their values, or if their home should be with us as we prepare to step up our defence of the planet in opposition”.
She also expressed frustration that Scottish Green party members had been denied the chance to have their democratic say on the future of the agreement.
The Scottish Greens had been due to hold their own meeting later in May on whether to leave the agreement after the Scottish government abandoned its target of cutting carbon emissions by 75% by 2030.
Tensions had been building between Yousaf and the Greens over several issues central to the Bute House agreement, including gender recognition, road building, climate strategy, marine policy and Yousaf’s unilateral decision to freeze council tax rates after the SNP’s humiliating defeat to Labour in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection.
Recent polls suggest the SNP faces losing dozens of seats at the next general election and Yousaf has been under growing pressure from within his party to scrap the agreement in order to neutralise opposition attacks and minimise the backlash from voters.
The SNP MSP Christine Grahame told ITV News Border on Wednesday she believed the agreement had to end.
“I think it’s run its course. I’ve been here when we had a minority government and I think there’s such a divergence between what the Greens want and what the SNP are looking for,” she said.
“I think the divergence is too great now and it’s in the interests of neither party to continue. So I’d be content if the SNP were to say: ‘We’re going to work as a minority government.’”
The chair of the Scottish Conservatives, Craig Hoy, said: “The collapse of this toxic coalition is an utter humiliation for Humza Yousaf, who hailed it as ‘worth its weight in gold’ and continued to back it to the hilt right until the end.
“The first minister’s judgment is so poor that he couldn’t see what a malign influence the anti-growth Greens have been in government and his authority so weak that he was bounced into this U-turn by his own MSPs.
“It beggars belief that the Greens were invited into government in the first place – but even more astonishing that Humza Yousaf allowed them to call the shots on issues like abandoning oil and gas, further delays to dualling the A9 and A96, devastating fishing curbs and gender ideology.
“Humza Yousaf’s year as SNP leader has been a disastrous mix of scandals, infighting and policy U-turns. The collapse of the power-sharing pact he staked his reputation on is not just humiliating, it highlights once again how inept and out his depth he is.”