Scotland’s Leader Resigns in Latest Gut Punch to Independence Movement

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf announced his resignation Monday in the latest setback for his Scottish National Party (SNP) and its goal of achieving Scottish independence from the rest of the United Kingdom.

Yousaf, who became the country’s leader following Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation last year, stepped down ahead of votes of no confidence expected to play out later in the week. His downfall came directly as a result of his own decision to rip up a coalition deal with the Green Party following disagreements over emissions targets and the medical treatment of children with gender dysphoria.

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“After spending the weekend reflecting on what is best for my party, for the government and for the country I lead, I have concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm,” Yousaf said in a resignation speech. He added that he would remain as first minister until a successor had been found and became visibly emotional as he paid tribute to his family for their support.

Yousaf also admitted that he “clearly underestimated” the hurt he’d caused to his Green colleagues by scrapping the power-sharing deal in the way that he did.

His departure ends a 13-month tenure as first minister which similarly began with SNP turmoil. Police raided the home of Yousaf’s predecessor Nicola Sturgeon in April 2023 and her husband Peter Murrell—who served as the party’s chief executive at the time—was arrested as part of a probe into the SNP’s finances. Sturgeon was also later arrested as part of the investigation but not charged, while Murrell has been charged with embezzlement.

Yousaf’s departure also comes ahead of a general election in the U.K. which is expected to take place in the second half of 2024. After controlling the Scottish government for 17 years, polling released earlier this month indicated that the SNP had fallen behind the Labour Party for the first time since 2014—the year that Scottish voters went against the SNP by choosing to remain part of the U.K. in an independence referendum.

The SNP has been agitating for a second vote on independence ever since.

In his resignation speech, Yousaf said: “Independence feels frustratingly close—and believe me, no one feels that frustration more than the leader of the SNP—but the last few miles of any marathon are always the hardest.”

In truth, the collapse of the SNP’s popular support means the dream of independence is further away than it has been for more than a decade.

Curiously, the current make-up of the Scottish legislature meant that Yousaf might have survived a confidence vote later this week if he had made a deal with the Alba Party—a young pro-independence party founded by the former SNP leader and Scottish first minister Alex Salmond—which currently has a single member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP).

Reports emerged over the weekend, however, said that Yousaf had ruled out making such a deal. Ash Regan, the lone Alba MSP, said in a statement after Yousaf’s resignation that her party had been “willing to work in the best interests of Scotland to put independence back at the heart of Government,” but the alliance did not materialize.

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