Humza Yousaf has said it would be a “poor choice” for the Scottish Greens to back the motion of no confidence in him, after writing to the leaders of Scotland’s political parties to seek “common ground”.
It comes as the Alba Party, whose sole MSP Ash Regan could hold a vote crucial to Mr Yousaf’s future, were holding an emergency meeting to discuss the way forward.
The First Minister is attempting to build bridges with the other political leaders at Holyrood, inviting them to talks at his official residence.
He hopes to hold separate meetings with each group at Bute House in Edinburgh to discuss how they can “contribute constructively”, while acknowledging that there are “strong feelings” about the upcoming confidence votes.
Letters were sent to the Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour, the Scottish Greens, the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Alba Party on Friday night.
READ MORE: Forbes hopes Greens will 'embrace' her as Yousaf leadership on the brink
Mr Yousaf terminated the powersharing deal between the SNP and Scottish Greens on Thursday, leading to the smaller pro-independence party announcing it would back the motion of no confidence in his leadership.
Mr Yousaf spoke to Sky News on Saturday, saying he hoped to hear from the other Holyrood leaders soon.
It was put to Mr Yousaf that given the lack of support from the Greens, Ms Regan could be crucial to his political survival.
He said: “That would be really disappointing if that is the Greens’ position.
“As I say, I’ve reached out to them, they are saying publicly that they’re going to support a Conservative motion against – a First Minister, an independence government.
“I think that would be, I think, a poor choice to make. So of course I have written to Ash Regan, as well. I look forward to speaking to her too.”
The ruling body of the pro-independence Alba Party, which is led by former first minister Alex Salmond, is holding an emergency meeting over the weekend where Ms Regan will set out “the areas of importance to the people of Scotland that she will seek movement on”.
In his letters, Mr Yousaf emphasised that the Scottish Parliament has previous experience of minority administrations which had delivered benefits for “people, communities and businesses”.
He said: “I recognise the strong feelings in relation to the confidence debate our parliament is set to have next week.
“Notwithstanding that, I am writing to all Holyrood party groups to ask them to meet me next week, in separate meetings, to discuss their concerns and indeed priorities, in a hopefully constructive spirit.”
READ MORE: Brian Taylor: Humza Yousaf faces a crisis – of his own making
The meetings at Bute House would “discuss matters and establish the scope for common ground”, he said.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who lodged a motion of no confidence in Mr Yousaf, suggested he is in little mood for compromise.
Mr Ross said: “This is a humiliating and embarrassing letter, in which Humza Yousaf is begging to be allowed to keep his job.
“His belated abandonment of the Bute House Agreement with the toxic Greens – which he was backing just two days before he finally decided to pull the plug – does nothing to undo the immense damage it has caused.
“Our NHS, schools, police and public services have all been profoundly hit by the spectacular mismanagement of the SNP-Green government under his leadership, and his last minute U-turn offers nothing to repair that.”
The Scottish Greens said they would respond formally to the First Minister in due course, but otherwise their position is unchanged.
Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie has said it is “pretty clear” Mr Yousaf will not be able to unite Holyrood – urging the SNP to consider finding a replacement for him.
Leaders of the other parties have not yet issued responses to the letters.
Speaking on Friday, Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar said: “I am more than happy to engage with people of all parties, but it is clear that Humza Yousaf is out of time.
“He is leading a chaotic and divided political party and an incompetent government that is failing the people of Scotland every single day, and one conversation isn’t going to change that.”
On Saturday, Mr Yousaf’s former leadership rival Kate Forbes urged colleagues to back him in the upcoming votes of no confidence.
Ms Forbes, who came second in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon last year, said recent events had been “an embarrassment for every parliamentarian in every party”.
Amid the tight parliamentary arithmetic at Holyrood, the vote of Alba Party Holyrood leader – and former SNP MSP – Ms Regan could be crucial to Mr Yousaf’s political survival.
In a BBC interview on Friday, Ms Regan said she had not spoken to Mr Yousaf since the leadership contest last year. She said she is still considering how to cast her vote.
She said: “I think that potentially some of the things he said about me when I left to go to a different political party last year probably shows that it’s always wise to have that level of professional courtesy to people that you work with.”
In October last year, Mr Yousaf said Ms Regan’s defection to Alba was “no great loss”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel