Ross Greer: Humza Yousaf panicked over Bute House Agreement

Mr Greer told The Herald he had taken considerable soundings from the Scottish Greens membership and was confident his party would have voted to back the deal with the SNP continuing at an extraordinary general meeting next month.

"From the conversations I've had with members, and I have spoken to a huge number of them over the past days, I am very confident that the result of our EGM would have been to support the Bute House Agreement," he told The Herald.

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"I understand why our members are angry about a huge range of issues but the central message is that Scotland would have been a fairer, greener place if the Greens were still in government in two years time to have made sure we would have delivered things like rent controls and a conversion therapy ban.

"We conveyed our optimism about those discussions to the SNP... what [Humza Yousaf] has done is take a gamble, he has massively weakened his own position and is now beholden to people in his own party who didn't want him to be leader."

Mr Greer, pictured below, added: "If he remains in office after next week he may still have the office but he will have no power.

"His authority over his own party has evaporated here. Nobody believes that Humza Yousaf thinks this is a good idea.

"Hours ago he was out batting for the Bute House Agreement, its not had some sort of damascean conversion to the anti Bute House Agreement side. He is being held hostage by these reaction, conservative forces.

"Fergus Ewing two weeks ago described Humza Yousaf as the worst mistake they [the SNP] had made, not the Greens. He is now dependent on Fergus Ewing and others like him."

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Mr Greer continued: "If you are being generous you would described this as a panic move - the way the council tax freeze was a panic move. But the council tax freeze is now looking like a minor panic compared to this. He has panicked....he has lost his parliamentary majority. Just this week he couldn't convince his MSPs to vote for an SNP bill."

However, there was disagreement on Friday morning about Mr Greer's assessment of how the vote at the EGM would have gone.

Commenting on The Herald's interview with Mr Greer, Niall Christie, a party member, wrote: A rewriting of very recent history. The discussion on the BHA had just begun. Nobody knows which way the vote would have gone, before a date for an EGM had even been set. We should focus on opposition, not dwell on a deal which forced us to abandon our climate principles."

The Greens called an EGM last week to discuss whether the party should remain in government after an announcement by the net zero secretary Mairi McAllan that it would be dropping its target to reduce carbon emissions by 75% by 2030.

Environmental organisation Friends of the Earth called it the worst environmental decision since devolution.

Scottish Green members were also unhappy at the decision to pause the prescription of puberty blockers to new patients under 18 at Scotland’s only gender services clinic for young people in Glasgow – a decision taken in the wake of the Cass Review in England and Wales.

READ MORE: Puberty blockers paused for all new patients in Scotland

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Amid the anger the Scottish Greens said they will back a motion of no confidence in Mr Yousaf.

It is understood all the party's MSPs will vote for the motion which has been lodged by the Conservatives. The vote in Holyrood is expected to take place next week.

Labour, the Lib Dems have all said they will be supporting the motion.

Should all MSPs in those parties back the motion it will mean that it gets the support of 63 MSPs. And if all SNP MSPs vote against, it would mean 62 MSPs opposing it.

Ash Regan, the Alba MSP, has set out a list of demands in return for her voting with the SNP.
Should she support Mr Yousaf it would mean a tied vote of 63 each way.

In that scenario, it is parliamentary custom for the Presiding Officer would vote to maintain the status quo, meaning she would support the SNP side.

Earlier, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie raised questions over whether Mr Yousaf's government would survive into next year.'

Asked at a hastily arranged press conference whether his party would back Mr Yousaf's next budget, Mr Harvie replied: "Do you think the current government will be in place by the time of the next Budget?"

The First Minister terminated the Bute House Agreement with immediate effect yesterday morning and said the move marked a “new beginning” for his SNP minority Government.

He had defended the pact just days earlier saying there was 'no need' or 'want' for SNP members to have a new vote on the arrangement continuing after calls from senior figures inside the SNP for a rethink.

But 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.”