Scotland’s First Minister, Humza Yousaf, convened an emergency Cabinet meeting on Thursday following mounting tensions between the SNP and Scottish Greens. The Bute House Agreement, named after the First Minister’s official residence in Edinburgh, had brought the Greens into power for the first time in the UK when it was signed in 2021. It provided the SNP with a majority in the Scottish Parliament, known as Holyrood, and appointed Green co-leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie as junior ministers in the Scottish Government.
The Greens were particularly angered by the Scottish Government’s recent decision to abandon a key climate change target and the pausing of puberty blockers for new patients at Scotland’s only gender services clinic for young people in Glasgow. These issues had led to significant pressure on the Greens, prompting them to schedule a party vote on the future of the powersharing deal. However, the agreement has been terminated before this vote could take place.
High-profile SNP figures, including former leadership candidate Kate Forbes and party stalwart Fergus Ewing, had previously called for the deal, which was signed when Nicola Sturgeon was First Minister, to end. Yousaf, the only candidate in the SNP leadership contest who supported continuing the deal, had previously praised it as being “worth its weight in gold”. However, after the Green vote on the future of the deal was announced, Harvie expressed uncertainty about whether his party would back its continuation.
With the powersharing deal now terminated, the SNP will be forced to operate as a minority administration in Holyrood. This move is a significant development in Scottish politics and could have implications for the future of the UK’s constitutional arrangements.
