The Scottish Greens have accused the SNP of “political cowardice” after First Minister Humza Yousaf called time on the power-sharing agreement the two parties had at Holyrood.
The end of the deal comes amid growing tensions between the two pro-independence parties – with Greens left furious after the Scottish Government last week abandoned a key climate change target. The Bute House Agreement was signed in 2021, making Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater Government ministers.Hitting out at the First Minister, she added: “By ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political co-operation, he can no longer be trusted.”
But some high-profile members of the SNP, including former leadership candidate Kate Forbes and party stalwart Fergus Ewing, have previously questioned the arrangement – prompting Ms Slater to claim the “most reactionary and backwards-looking forces within the First Minister’s party have forced him to do the opposite of what he himself had said was in Scotland’s best interests”.