The Scottish government coalition between the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Scottish Greens has collapsed after SNP leader Humza Yousaf ended the Bute House Agreement, which underpinned the coalition. The decision came after Mr. Yousaf called an emergency meeting of the Scottish cabinet to address growing tensions between the two parties.
Under the Bute House Agreement, the Greens had two MSPs acting as junior ministers in Mr. Yousaf’s government. However, it is believed that Mr. Yousaf has now removed Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater from the government, and the SNP is set to act as a minority government going forward.
The Greens were angered when the Scottish Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan announced last week that the Scottish Government was to ditch a key climate change target. That, combined with the decision to pause the use of puberty blockers for new patients attending the only Scottish gender identity clinic for children in Glasgow, resulted in the Greens saying last week that they would have a vote on the future of the powersharing deal. That vote is expected to take place later in May, but it has now emerged that the SNP has ended the Bute House Agreement.
The deal, which was signed in 2021 and is named after the official residence of the Scottish First Minister in Edinburgh, brought the Green Party into government for the first time anywhere in the UK. It gave the SNP a majority at Holyrood when the votes of its MSPs were combined with those of the seven Greens members, and also made Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater junior ministers in the Scottish Government. Without it, the SNP will need to operate as a minority administration at Holyrood.
High-profile figures in the SNP, such as former leadership candidate Kate Forbes and party stalwart Fergus Ewing, have previously called for the deal to be ended.
This is a breaking story, and more information will be provided as it becomes available.
