SNP gives Greens the Bute: Under-pressure Humza Yousaf ends Scottish coalition agreement by turfing junior party's leaders out of government amid row over environment and trans rights policies

Scotland's SNP/Green coalition collapsed this morning as First Minister Humza Yousaf kicked the junior party out of Government before he could suffer the embarrassment of seeing them leave.

Mr Yousaf is believed to have sacked Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater from junior ministerial roles after a week of furious infighting between and within both parties.

Tensions have been rising between the two parties over the government's approach to trans rights, while Net Zero targets were watered down last week. 

It prompted the Greens to set a vote for next month on collapsing the 2021 deal. But Mr Yousaf acted first to spare his own blushes, with Mr Slater and Ms Harvie reportedly leaving Bute House, the FM's Edinburgh residence, before the meeting started.

In a statement afterwards Ms Slater said: 'This is an act of political cowardice by the SNP, who are selling out future generations to appease the most reactionary forces in the country.' 

Mr Yousaf had been accused of running a 'zombie government' while he waited to find out if the Greens will pull the plug on the deal. 

But after days of defending the agreement he this morning decided to pull the plug first, after his own backbenchers said enough was enough.

Without the agreement the SNP will need to operate as a minority administration at Holyrood, raising questions about how effectively they can govern.

Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: 'The collapse of this toxic coalition is an utter humiliation for Humza Yousaf, who hailed it as ''worth its weight in gold'' and continued to back it to the hilt right until the end.

'The First Minister's judgement is so poor that he couldn't see what a malign influence the anti-growth Greens have been in government and his authority so weak that he was bounced into this U-turn by his own MSPs.

'It beggars belief that the Greens were invited into government in the first place – but even more astonishing that Humza Yousaf allowed them to call the shots on issues like abandoning oil and gas, further delays to dualling the A9 and A96, devastating fishing curbs and gender ideology.

'Humza Yousaf's year as SNP leader has been a disastrous mix of scandals, infighting and policy U-turns. The collapse of the power sharing pact he staked his reputation on is not just humiliating, it highlights once again how inept and out his depth he is.'

Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie said 'This chaotic and incompetent government is falling apart before our eyes while Scots pay the price.'

Concerns were raised yesterday that the government will be in a state of 'paralysis' until Green party members decide if they should scrap the Bute House Agreement.

The First Minister has been under growing pressure from within his party to allow SNP members a vote on the issue, ahead of Green activists having their say next month.

Opponents raised concerns about the impact the vacuum will have on Mr Yousaf's administration.

The Bute House Agreement, which was voted for by members of both parties in August 2021, brought Greens into government for the first time anywhere in the UK, and gave the SNP a majority in the Scottish Parliament when its votes there were combined with those of the seven Green MSPs.

The Greens were angered when the Scottish Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan announced last week the Scottish Government was to ditch a key climate change target.

That, combined with the decision to pause the use of puberty blockers for new patients attending the only Scottish gender identity clinic for children in Glasgow, resulted in the Greens saying last week that they would have a vote on the future of the power-sharing deal.

That vote is expected to take place later on in May - but it now appears the SNP could end the Bute House Agreement before that.

The deal, which was signed in 2021 and is named after the official residence of the Scottish First Minister in Edinburgh, brought the Green Party into government for the first time anywhere in the UK.

High-profile figures in the SNP, such as former leadership candidate Kate Forbes and party stalwart Fergus Ewing, have previously called for the deal to be ended.