72 hours of plotting, a series of desperate phone calls - then SNP old guard blocked last-ditch deal with Salmond…Humza knew the game was up

In the early hours of yesterday morning, Humza Yousaf was still scrabbling to cut a last-minute deal with Alex Salmond which would keep him in Bute House.

While the rest of the country was barely rousing from sleep, Mr Yousaf had been up at the crack of dawn to hit the phones.

Desperately trying to save his job, the First Minister was even prepared to talk with his enemies in the disaffected Alba Party. 

Humiliatingly, one of those was Ash Regan, the woman he had described months ago as ‘no great loss’ to his party when she defected.

Just 72 hours after he spoke enthusiastically about ‘new beginnings’ for his leadership after jettisoning his Green coalition partners, Mr Yousaf found himself on the brink.

Still at home in Dundee, these crucial calls were about to make or break his political career.

But with warnings ringing in his ear about alienating a hard core of supporters from his party’s ‘old guard’, Mr Yousaf must have known his fate was sealed. 

Despite apparently describing Alba’s demands as ‘very reasonable’, he was unable to grasp that final, defining moment of his tenure.

As the first news bulletins of the day came on the air, there was only one story in town, and Mr Yousaf knew it: ‘First Minister to quit’.

As the journalist pack gathered outside Bute House, waiting for the inevitable, Mr Yousaf made the lonely journey to Edinburgh to carry out his own execution.

After hours likely poring over his resignation speech for the umpteenth time, and no doubt with a quiet nod to his family, he descended the stairs of Bute House to end the agony.

At noon, the biggest speech of his life would spark a day of recriminations, empty platitudes from supporters and a stark warning from rivals the fight was not yet over.

He had chosen not to compromise his values to cling on to power, he said. 

He could have easily survived the vote of no confidence, he added. ‘A route through this week’s motion of no confidence was absolutely possible,’ he said.

But Mr Salmond’s account of talks earlier that morning cast a different light upon the reality of Mr Yousaf’s desperate attempts to hang on. 

Mr Salmond said: ‘At half past seven this morning he was trying to do a deal with Alba and complemented the proposals we had made as very reasonable. 

The reason he didn’t do a deal with Alba is because there are forces within his own party who stopped him doing it – let’s call them the old guard.’

Whether it was his values or those of ‘the old guard’ that put a stop to any agreement with Alba being agreed, by mid-morning Mr Yousaf knew the game was up.

Rumours of his resignation had begun at the end of last week after the decision to bring an end to the Bute House Agreement with the Greens left him both without a majority or the tacit support of his former coalition partners.

With the Conservatives tabling a vote of no confidence in Mr Yousaf and Labour tabling a vote of no confidence in the entire government, things began to unravel quickly.

Attempts over the weekend to appeal to opposition parties to find ‘common ground’ were flatly ignored. 

The Greens were still seething about being sacked. 

Only Alba were prepared to toss him a tiny scrap of hope.

On Sunday, newly sacked Green Minister Lorna Slater appeared on television ranting about a ‘spectacular breach of trust’ for which Mr Yousaf ‘needs to face the consequences’.

Scottish Labour said that it had ‘no confidence in Humza Yousaf.’ Even the Lib Dems said he had ‘eroded entirely any remaining trust’ in him.

The situation had spiralled hopelessly out of control and rumours that Mr Yousaf was considering jumping before being pushed began to swirl around.

Word the First Minister was to make an announcement began circulating on Sunday evening, whilst the official press call was issued at 10am yesterday.

If there was any doubt as to the nature of the announcement, the podium had been set up in front of the same Robert Burns portrait in front of which his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon had announced her own resignation.

First came his wife Nadia and his Deputy First Minister Shona Robison. 

Mr Yousaf began by conceding that he had ‘underestimated’ the impact of his decision to dump the Greens and that it was a fatal mis-step which would end his term as First Minister with the second shortest run in history, following only Labour’s Henry McLeish – who was forced to quit after only a year and 12 days.

Mr Yousaf did not dwell on the workings of his demise for too long. 

Gushing about multiculturalism, the honour of being able to serve as First Minister and a pained metaphor about the independence movement being akin to a marathon run as a team put him on more comfortable ground.

He had arrived at the conclusion that independence would be inevitable ‘if only every person in Scotland could be afforded the opportunity of being first minister for just one day’.

But he described politics as a ‘brutal business’ that takes its toll on physical and mental health.

On the back of a weekend facing up to the sheer scale of the implications of his clumsy manoeuvre last week, few could doubt the honesty of this statement.

But it was not until he brought up the subject of his family, who will soon be welcoming a new baby, that he began to struggle to keep his emotions under control.

His voice cracking, he said he was ‘in debt’ to his wife, children and their wider family who he said had suffered alongside him.

In the final moments of his speech he said he held ‘no ill will or grudges’ towards the opposition parties who had rejected his pleas for co-operation.

It was clear though, that he was in no mood to discuss his dealings with opponents any further.

Microphones had been set up in anticipation of Mr Yousaf answering questions about the events of the previous week.

But perhaps expecting a deluge of uncomfortable questions about Alba, Alex Salmond, Ash Regan and likely his own blundering, unlike his predecessor he left without answering questions.

These were matters he could not blame Westminster for.

The architect of this particular disaster was staring back at him in the mirror. And for the past five days, he had known deep down that the game was up.