Scottish Greens to oppose Yousaf in no-confidence vote

Scottish Green MSPs have confirmed they will back a vote of no-confidence in First Minister Humza Yousaf.

Co-leader Patrick Harvie said Mr Yousaf had "burnt his bridges".

The decision means Mr Yousaf could struggle to win the vote, which has been tabled by the Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross.

The vote is expected to take place next week, possibly as early as Thursday. The announcement by the Greens leaves the outcome on a knife edge.

The former SNP MSP Ash Regan, who is now an Alba Party MSP, could potentially decide Mr Yousaf's fate.

If every Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat MSP joins the Greens in voting against Mr Yousaf it would give them 64 votes to the SNP's 63.

The result would then depend upon which way Ms Regan decided to vote.

Ms Regan, who ran for the leadership of the SNP against Mr Yousaf, later left the party over its policies on gender recognition reforms.

Speaking as they announced their decision, Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said they entered the agreement on the basis that they would work together to deliver a "progressive policy programme".

But she said Mr Yousaf's decision to end it came with no reassurance that the SNP would continue with those objectives.

"It abruptly ends the pro-independence majority government which the public voted for, and which members of both parties supported," she said.

"Therefore Scottish Green MSPs will support a vote of no confidence against the first minister if such a motion comes before parliament in the coming weeks".

Speaking earlier, Scotland's former first minister and the leader of the Alba Party, Alex Salmond, said that Humza Yousaf had made Ms Regan the "most powerful MSP in the Scottish Parliament".

Mr Salmond said the first minister had managed to annoy every opposition party in Holyrood.

He said Ms Regan was writing to the first minister setting out her concerns about the Scottish government's priorities and seeing if there were areas where her party and the SNP could work together ahead of any confidence vote.