Humza Yousaf said he could have "clung on” as first minister, but admitted he would probably have led his party to defeat at the election.

Speaking on the Community Radio Network’s The Week in Holyrood with Charles Fletcher, the ex-SNP leader said there was a “deal there to be done" which meant he could have survived a vote of no confidence in April.

His leadership had been in turmoil after a shock decision to terminate the Bute House Agreement and kick the Scottish Greens out of government.

A confidence motion, tabled by the Tories, was backed by all the parties in Holyrood, bar Alba.

Mr Yousaf’s only hope of getting through the vote was to work with Alex Salmond’s party, but doing so would have upset many in his ministerial team and a number of his backbenchers.

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“It could have been done,” Mr Yousaf said. “But as I said at the time I just wasn’t willing to trade in my principles and I couldn’t have done that and been happy.

“And to be frank, I may have clung on. There would have been a General Election. The result would have been the same. And so I probably would have had to go anyway.”

The former first minister stood by his decision to axe the Bute House Agreement which ultimately led to his downfall.

“Ending the Green deal was the right thing to do,” he said. “The way in which it was done is the real problem.

“My execution of that is my execution alone, nobody else’s. It was poorly handled and I paid the price for that.”

In July, the SNP had their worst result since 2010, losing 39 seats and returning nine MPs, after their vote fell by a third.

Scottish Labour, meanwhile, made huge gains.

(Image: PA)

However, Mr Yousaf said Sir Keir Starmer’s “rocky start” in government could help the SNP at the 2026 Holyrood election.

“Probably in the days and weeks after the General Election result, Anas Sarwar was probably thinking of measuring the curtains in Bute House. I think he’s in a very different place now.

“I know about rocky starts, but I don’t think anybody would have imagined the collapse in the support for the UK Labour Party in less than 100 days.

“Labour in Scotland have no place to hide.

“I think the SNP, coming off the back of three by-election wins definitely has a spring in its step.

“If you want a first minister that only answers to Scotland, not to his boss in London, then you’re going to have to vote for John Swinney.

“I think the SNP, if we can keep focused on what matters to people, keep delivering for them, get rid of some of the more difficult issues around our neck, then I think we’ll be in a really good place.”

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In the interview, Mr Yousaf also accused of Israel of taking “revenge” on Palestinian people for the actions of Hamas on October 7.

Asked if Israel’s retaliation had gone too far, he replied: “Without a shadow of a doubt. It’s no longer really retaliation, it’s now just revenge.

“It is a vengeance that has seen, by Oxfam’s estimates, more women and children killed in Gaza by Israeli forces in a year than the equivalent period in any conflict in the last 20 years. That alone should shock us.

“There can be no world in which the justification of the killing of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, men, women and children can be justified.

“We would not say that Hamas’ actions were justified. I don’t know anybody of reasonable mind who would suggest that their actions were justified.

“Israel’s actions simply cannot be justified and what we have seen in the last 365 days plus is a complete abject failure from the international community to ensure that international law is being upheld.”

Responding to Mr Yousaf’s comments about the general election, Scottish Tory MSP Annie Wells said: “This is a rare example of Humza Yousaf displaying some common sense. He was hellbent on pushing the SNP’s latest independence plan and in effect would have treated any General Election as a defacto referendum.

“That showed how disconnected he was from what Scots wanted him to focus on and even after he had left Bute House, his party were routed up and down Scotland.

“After spending his tenure promoting fringe and divisive issues, at least Humza Yousaf has now realised that Scots would have delivered a damning verdict had he been SNP leader during the election campaign.”