Humza Yousaf is stepping down as first minister of Scotland. After feverish speculation over the weekend, Yousaf has announced this lunchtime in a press conference at Bute House that he intends to stand down from the role once an SNP leadership contest has taken place to find his successor. Acknowledging the events that had led up to this moment, Yousaf said he had ‘clearly underestimated the level of hurt’ that ending his party’s power-sharing agreement with the Greens caused the SNP’s minority partner. He said trust was ‘fundamental’.
Yousaf went on to say that from his discussions over the weekend with figures in the Scottish Greens and Alba, he had found there was a path through that would allow him to win the two confidence votes this week in his leadership. However, he said he had decided that it was a price not worth paying as he was ‘not willing’ to make deals just to stay in power that would go against his principles:
I have concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm.
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