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Scotland’s beleaguered first minister Humza Yousaf is considering quitting ahead of crunch votes of no confidence expected this week.
Yousaf, who faces two attempts to bring down his premiership and government, is set to decide whether to resign on Monday, according to people briefed on the matter.
The Scottish National party has 63 Holyrood seats, versus 65 for opposition parties. Yousaf would need to persuade one opposition member of the Scottish parliament to vote for him and his government in no-confidence motions to secure his position.
Over the weekend, the SNP leader’s team had been considering options to win enough support to be able to carry on as a minority government.
Senior SNP figures had been holding talks with the Scottish Greens, Yousaf’s erstwhile coalition partners whom he booted out of government last week, triggering the current political crisis.
On Monday morning Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I don’t think there is anything that Humza Yousaf will be able to say that can restore the trust that he has broken.”
Yousaf had also been considering seeking support from Ash Regan, the sole MSP from rival nationalist party Alba, led by former first minister Alex Salmond. She had been expected to demand the SNP prioritise independence and dilute its gender recognition reforms. But the SNP has ruled out the notion of a formal pact with Alba.
If Yousaf were to resign on Monday, the SNP would have to find a new leader who could command wider support within the Scottish parliament.
The inheritance would be tough for any successor, given the SNP’s 17 years in government and a police investigation into the party’s finances.
SNP figures have said the frontrunners would include Kate Forbes, who ran Yousaf close in the leadership contest last year; John Swinney, former deputy first minister who could assume a caretaker role; and Neil Gray, an ally of Yousaf.
Forbes, an effective former minister and savvy parliamentarian, would struggle to garner Green support, said Harvie, who questioned her social conservative views and criticism of the progressive taxation policies pursued by the SNP-Green coalition.
