Humza Yousaf resigns as Scotland's First Minister

Scotland's first minister, Humza Yousaf, resigned Monday in a fresh setback for his Scottish National Party, which has been engulfed in a slow-burning crisis over a funding scandal that erupted after a popular leader, Nicola Sturgeon, stepped down last year.

Yousaf's departure had looked increasingly inevitable after he gambled last week by ending a power-sharing deal with the Scottish Green Party.

The two parties had clashed over climate goals and trans rights, but his abrupt decision angered the Greens and left him at the head of a minority government without obvious allies. His opponents then pressed for two motions of no confidence, which are expected to take place this week.

Having explored his options over several fraught days, Yousaf, who was Scotland's first Muslim leader, announced his plan to quit in a speech Monday at Bute House in Edinburgh, Scotland, the official residence of the Scottish first minister.

"I have concluded that repairing our relationships across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm," Yousaf said in a short and at times emotional statement.

He admitted that he had "clearly underestimated the level of hurt and upset" that his abrupt decision to end the coalition had caused, and said he would continue as first minister -- the head of the Scottish government -- until his successor was elected.

His resignation was the latest twist in a dramatic change in fortune for the SNP, which has dominated the country's politics for more than a decade and which campaigns for Scottish independence.

The party secured a referendum on that issue in 2014, but 55.3% of Scots voted to remain in the United Kingdom, and polls suggest that just over half of voters continue to reject independence.

Sturgeon, who became first minister after that vote, was seen as an effective communicator and a strong, if sometimes divisive, leader of a party that outshone others in Scotland.

"Looking at it in the short term, it has been a dramatic fall," said James Mitchell, professor of public policy at Edinburgh University. "But the tide turned against them and it has been receding for quite some time. They never got out of campaign mode and they never got back to governing mode."

Yousaf succeeded Sturgeon, who announced her departure in February 2023, and he was initially seen as a continuity candidate. That became less of an asset when Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell, was arrested and later charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds while he was the party's long-serving chief executive. Sturgeon was also arrested in the same inquiry but has not been charged.

With the funding scandal looming over the SNP, Yousaf struggled to assert himself, and the crisis coincided with the dimming of prospects for a new independence referendum, the party's main preoccupation.

The SNP's troubles have been a bonus for Britain's main opposition Labour Party, which once dominated Scottish politics but saw its support there collapse in the mid-2010s.

Labour's recent recovery in Scotland could yield a number of seats in a general election expected later this year, which would significantly ease the path of the party's leader, Keir Starmer, to 10 Downing St., the official home of Britain's prime minister.

But the latest blow to the SNP was to a large extent self-inflicted.

The power-sharing agreement with the Greens, struck by Sturgeon in August 2021, allowed the SNP to retain power after it emerged as the biggest party in that year's election but failed to win an outright majority.

In recent weeks the Greens had become unhappy after the Scottish government retreated from its pledge to cut emissions of greenhouse gases 75% by 2030.

There was also tension between the parties over a decision by the National Health Service in Scotland to pause the prescription of puberty blockers and other hormone treatments for minors. That followed an independent review of gender services in England by Hilary Cass, a pediatrician.

The Greens had planned to consult their members on whether to stay in the coalition, but last week Yousaf preempted that decision by terminating the agreement himself.

He appeared to assume that he could continue to lead a minority government with the tacit support of the Greens, but the peremptory manner in which he ended the deal infuriated the party. And when Scotland's Conservative Party pressed a no-confidence vote for Yousaf, the Greens said they would vote against him.

Labour then demanded a vote of confidence in the Scottish government, presenting a second major hurdle for Yousaf to surmount.

Who will take his place is unclear. Kate Forbes was the runner-up in last year's contest to succeed Sturgeon but her socially conservative views provoked opposition from the party's more progressive wing.

John Swinney, a former deputy first minister, is an experienced politician who might stabilize the party's fortunes, and Monday he received the endorsement of Jenny Gilruth, the education secretary in the Scottish government, and Stephen Flynn, who leads the SNP lawmakers in London.

Both had been seen as potential challengers, although without a seat in the Scottish Parliament, Flynn would not have been unable to serve as first minister.

But some see Swinney as a stopgap candidate, and Mitchell, noting that he had stepped down in 2004 after a difficult spell as leader of the SNP, said that making Swinney leader "would be a sign of desperation."

On Monday, Swinney, who has yet to declare his candidacy, praised Yousaf as a pioneer, writing on social media that he was the "first person of color to hold office as first minister," and had offered "principled and empathetic leadership to our country."

Earlier, in his resignation speech, Yousaf paid an emotional tribute to his family, thanking them for their support and saying that he had been given opportunities he never expected as a young boy.

"People who looked like me were not in positions of political influence, let alone leading governments when I was younger," he said. But, he added, politics was sometimes a "brutal business."