Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater are out of government after First Minister Humza Yousaf ended the historic deal
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The SNP has broken off the Bute House Agreement ending the power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens.
Humza Yousaf ended the deal on Thursday (this morning) with Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater leaving government.
Slater accused the SNP of selling out future generations calling the decision “an act of political cowardice”.
“Voters deserve better, Scotland deserves better,” she said.
“They have broken the bonds of trust with members of both parties who have twice chosen the co-operation agreement and climate action over chaos, culture wars and division. They have betrayed the electorate.
“And by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political cooperation, he can no longer be trusted.”
There was an immediate reaction from Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie, the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party.
“Humza Yousaf is too weak to hold his own government together and he is too weak to deliver for Scotland.
“Three years into the Bute House Agreement the promises the SNP and Greens made have been torn to shreds.
“While Humza Yousaf is ditching the Bute House Agreement, he cannot escape the fact that it’s the SNP that has left almost one in six Scots on NHS waiting lists, gutted public services and failed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
“None of this changes the fact that it is SNP failures that have left Scots with higher bills, higher taxes, fewer jobs and a health care service on the brink.
“The collapse of this ill-fated marriage was inevitable but Scotland needs an entirely new government.
“Only Scottish Labour can deliver the change Scotland needs. ”
“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.”
“Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political cooperation, he can no longer be trusted”
Lorna Slater, Scottish Greens co-leader
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, right, said: “The two partners to this failed agreement are at each others’ throats. They are now trying to blame each other, but in reality they have both failed the people of Scotland.
“Together they have cut our NHS off at its knees, butchered the housing budget, junked climate targets and made life harder for businesses.
“Islanders still don’t have the ferries they desperately need and Scottish schools are tumbling down the international rankings.
“Two clowns have left the clown car, but the circus continues. We don’t just need an end to the Bute House Agreement, we need an end to this entire government.”
Meanwhile, Slater had said earlier that she and Harvie had been prepared to “put our own political careers on the line” with a vote by party members unlike Yousaf.
“What a pity he didn’t have the fortitude or the bravery to do the same,” she added.
This means the SNP will need to form a minority government as it lacks a majority of MSPs at Holyrood.
The First Minister held an unexpected cabinet meeting at 8.30am today, Thursday.
It comes after Green Party members reacted furiously to the Scottish Government ditching some of its climate targets as well as the decision by the NHS to pause the prescription of puberty blockers in Scotland for new patients.
The Greens were due to vote on whether to continue being part of the Scottish Government.
Harvie became tenants rights minister when the deal was signed in 2021 while Slater became circular economy.
The parties entered into the power-sharing agreement after the 2021 Holyrood election when the SNP fell one short of the 65 MSPs needed to form a majority government.
The Greens won a record eight seats, up two from the ballot before, and its position as the only other pro-independence group in Holyrood gave it leverage over the SNP.
By the summer, the two parties had entered into the Bute House Agreement which included a range of policy commitments on areas from gender to housing and the climate.
Harvie, a Dumbarton man who is the longest-serving Green MSP, became minister for zero carbon buildings, active travel and tenants’ rights while his co-leader Lorna Slater became minister for green skills, circular economy and biodiversity.
They were and remain the only Green politicians to have entered into government in the UK.
Despite numerous challenges over the last three years – including the risk of the deal ending if Kate Forbes beat Yousaf in the SNP leadership contest – commitment from either side had been steadfast.
But two major announcements on April 18 exposed a deepening chasm between and within the parties.
How did we get here?
Last week, Scotland’s net zero secretary announced that the Government’s “world-leading” targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 would be scrapped.
Friends of the Earth described the news as the “worst environmental decision in the history of the Scottish Parliament” while Oxfam said it made Scotland a “global embarrassment”.
Harvie told STV News on the same day that he too was “embarrassed” by the decision and said everyone in Scotland should be angry about his government’s roll-back.
However, the Green minister said he would retain his role and insisted that his party continued to make a positive impact on the Government’s climate response.
From Harvie’s point of view, it’s better inside the tent than out in the cold.
Then the Rainbow Greens, which represents LGBT members of the party, protested at Glasgow’s George Square on Thursday against the NHS’s decision to pause the prescription of puberty blockers for new patients.
The influential group claimed the Scottish Government “does not care about the welfare or rights of transgender people in Scotland”.
The day after, late on Friday night, Slater announced that members would indeed have a vote on whether to continue working with the SNP in government.
Yousaf: Voting Green is a ‘wasted vote’
A change of tack has not been limited to just party members.
Greens MSP Ross Greer was quick to criticise Yousaf after his surprise decision to freeze council tax nationwide last year, which the Greens only learned of hours before the public.
Both appear to be on good terms though, being seen side by side at an independence march in Glasgow on Saturday. And elected Greens have been far less likely to criticise the Bute House Agreement than party members.