Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf resigned on Monday amid a breakdown in Scotland’s governing coalition, averting a no-confidence vote that likely would have removed him from office later this week. Yousaf’s resignation, which has triggered a search for a new leader for the Scottish National Party (SNP), comes after the passage of a controversial hate speech law destroyed his public approval ratings.
Following years of infighting and scandals since the time of Yousaf’s predecessor, the SNP lost its coalition last week after voting to oust the Scottish Green Party over differences in climate change policy. The two parties had previously agreed to share power in 2021 under a pact known as the Bute House Agreement, which unified them behind a common climate goal. Tensions flared after the SNP scrapped a plan for cutting Scotland’s carbon emissions, prompting the two parties to end the agreement.
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Without a governing coalition behind him, Yousaf faced a no-confidence vote to remove him, and despite prior statements to the contrary, he lacked the support to overcome the challenge.
“While a route through this week’s motion of no confidence was absolutely possible, I am not willing to trade my values and principles or do deals with whomever simply for retaining power,” he told reporters in Edinburgh during his resignation speech.
“Therefore, after spending the weekend reflecting on what is best for my party, for the government and for the country I lead I have concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm,” he continued. “I have therefore informed the SNP’s national secretary of my intention to stand down as party leader and ask that she commences a leadership contest for my replacement as soon as possible.”
Yousaf will remain in office until a replacement can be found. If no replacement is appointed, Scotland faces the possibility of early elections.
When he took office just over 13 months ago, he became the first ethnic minority leader of a government in the United Kingdom and the first Muslim to lead a UK major party.
During his short tenure, Yousaf quickly built a reputation for left-leaning government, including advancing a nationwide agenda of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), explicitly calling for fewer White people in the Scottish government, and encouraging mass migration in the name of “economic benefit.”
However, the legislation likely to be his enduring political legacy came in the form of the Hate Crime and Public Order Act, with threatened prison time for “spreading hatred” against protected groups. As Valuetainment previously reported, more than 4,000 hate speech complaints were filed with police within the first 48 hours after the bill took effect—many of them targeting Yousaf himself for his past anti-White remarks.
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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