Humza Yousaf’s press conference – summary and analysis
Here are the main lines from what Humza Yousaf said at his news conference. But what the reporters were saying was probably just as interesting too. One of the reasons why I often report press conferences in full, covering the questions as much as the answers, is because from the questions you can guage how an event is likely to end up being reported in the papers the following day. Yousaf rejected the claim that his U-turn on the pact with the Scottish Greens was a sign of weakness, but that did not stop the question from being put repeatedly. The tone of the exchanges implied that the Scottish papers (which are not over-favourable to the SNP at the best of times) won’t make pleasant reading for Yousaf tomorrow.
Cooperation in any sphere of life is almost, by definition, a trade off – one in which the benefits of working together are held up against the limitations of compromise.
And when it comes to our the agreement with the Scottish Green party, I believe that the benefits have outweighed the compromises. When I said that the agreement was worth its weight in gold, I meant it.
However, it is now my judgment that the balance has shifted.
The Bute House Agreement was intended to provide stability to the Scottish government, and it has made possible a number of achievements. But it has served its purpose.
It is no longer guaranteeing a stable arrangement in parliament. The events of recent days have made that clear.
Therefore, after careful consideration, I believe that going forward, it is in the best interests of the people of Scotland to pursue a different arrangement.
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He said that he expected the SNP to continue to cooperate with the Scottish Greens, but in a “less formal” way. He said that governing as a minority government would be “tough”. He also said the SNP would work with other opposition parties. They needed to “step up, he said. In his opening statement he said:
In essence, I hope that we will still be cooperating [with the Scottish Greens] but just returning to, frankly, a less formal arrangement …
We will now step up over ambition, but we will do so as a minority government. That will be tough. We will seek to work not just for the Scottish Greens, but with MSPs from across the chamber.
The SNP has, of course, governed as a minority for most of our time in office and, having served as a minister for a number of years during that time, I’m well used to working constructively with opposition parties where necessary secure parliamentary support.
It was, of course, under that agrement that some of our biggest successes in government were achieved.
And in response to a question, he said:
There’s a serious challenge here to the opposition too. They cannot simply oppose for the sake of opposing. They have to work constructively in order to make sure that we continue as a parliament to achieve for the people of Scotland.
So instead of sniping from the sidelines, as they often do, not coming with anything useful in terms of suggestion, now it’s time for the opposition to also step up.
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He rejected claims that his decision to abandon the pact with the Greens just 48 hours after he was saying he wanted it to continue was a sign of weakness. Instead, he claimed he was showing leadership. (See 10.25am.)
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He said that he had been considering ending the pact “for quite some time”, but that he kept defending the Bute House agreement in public because he was reflecting on the matter in private. Asked what changed between now and Tuesday, when he was saying he wanted the deal to continue, he replied:
I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time but, of course, you’d understand that for me it was important to take some of that counsel in private. I’ve been speaking to people that I trust, I’ve been reflecting myself very hard, and often with careful consideration, on what is in the best interests of the country, the government and, importantly and crucially, my party.
Key events
Ex-Post Office executive who played leading role defending prosecutions tells inquiry she’s ‘truly, truly sorry’
A former Post Office executive who played a leading role in defending the prosecution of the post officer operators who are now recognised as innocent said this morning she she never “knowingly” did anything wrong in the Horizon scandal.
As PA Media reports, Angela van den Bogerd began her evidence at the Post Office Horizon inquiry in London on Thursday by saying she was “truly, truly sorry” for the “devastation” caused to wrongly convicted subpostmasters and their families.
Van den Bogerd, who was played by Coronation Street actress Katherine Kelly in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, later said: “I didn’t knowingly do anything wrong, and I would never knowingly do anything wrong.”
Jason Beer KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, pointed out that she had not apologised for her own role in the scandal in her witness statement.
Van den Bogerd replied:
I’ve reflected on this quite a bit and the disclosure that I’ve seen through this process, there are things that, documents that I’ve seen that … clearly knowing what I know now, I would give further weight to some of those documents than I did at the time, so they would have more significance.
So things that I might have missed at the time I really regret that and wish I’d been able to see that back then.
As PA reports, Beer pressed again, asking: “You don’t apologise for anything that you did wrong, do you?”
Van den Bogerd responded:
I apologise for not getting to the answer more quickly. But with the evidence I had and the parameters of my role at the time, I did the best I could to the best of my ability.
Asked if she blames Horizon developer Fujitsu for not being “transparent” with her and the Post Office, van den Bogerd responded: “Yes.”
She also agreed with Beer that chiefs were attempting to control the narrative by using the words “exception or anomaly” to describe bugs or defects in the Horizon system.
Van den Bogerd held various roles throughout her 35-year career at the Post Office, starting off as a network change operations manager, then on to head of network services, head of partnerships, director of support services and the director of people and change.
She was appointed as the Post Office’s business improvement director in 2018, but stepped down from the role in 2020.
At the start of her evidence van den Bogerd said:
Saying sorry I know doesn’t change what’s happened.
But I do want to say to everyone impacted by wrongful convictions and wrongful contract terminations that I am truly, truly sorry for the devastation caused to you, your family and friends.
I hope my evidence will assist this inquiry with getting to the answers you and so many others deserve.
Van den Bogerd was the most senior Post Office witness in Bates v the Post Office, the legal case that resulted in Alan Bates securing a £57m settlement from the Post Office on behalf of 555 post office operators wrongly accused of taking money. Much of the payment went towards legal fees.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, said both parties in the power-sharing agreement had failed. Referring to Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, he said:
Two clowns have left the clown car, but this circus continues.
The presiding officer, Alison Johnstone, told Cole-Hamilton to treat other MSPs with respect.
Yousaf said reminded Cole-Hamiliton of the Lib Dem coalition with the Tories which delivered austerity. And he said Cole-Hamiltion could not even field a five-a-side football team.
The Scottish Lib Dems have just four MSPs.
Sarwar said the SNP were “weak, divided, incompetent and putting party before country”. He said Scotland should hold an election.
Yousaf said a general election would be taking place soon anway. Labour would lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses, but keep the two-child cap on benefits, he said.
Sarwar said Yousaf spent weeks defending the Bute House agreement. He was “pleading with Green party members to keep his shambolic government together”. Now he has been forced into a “humiliating U-turn”, he said.
Sarwar quoted Yousaf as saying, when he was running for SNP leader, as saying that ending the deal with the Green and destablising the government would be “a tremendously foolish thing to do”. Does Yousaf feel tremendously foolish today?
Yousaf ignored this quote, and attacked Sarwar, arguing he was in the pocket of Keir Starmer.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said Yousaf was a weak leader who was not delivering on what the Scottish government promised.
Scottish Tories say they will call vote of no confidence in Yousaf in Scottish parliament
Ross said Yousaf was a weak first minister who jumped before the Scottish Green members pushed him.
He said the Scottish Conservatives would be tabling a motion of no confidence in Yousaf.
Yousaf said the Tories were “nothing if not predictable”. He accused them of playing “political games”.
He said voters would give the Tories “an almighty thumping” at the election
Ross said Yousaf failed to explain why he changed his mind in the last 48 hours about the deal with the Greens. He claimed Yousaf’s government was in crisis. Yousaf has abandoned the platform he stood on, Ross said. He said Yousaf was now a lame duck first minster.
Yousaf said Ross’s party gave the country Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. The Tories are the party of the mini-budget, he said. And in Scotland they have not won an election for half a century, he said.
Ross said the Greens should never have been allowed into government in Scotland. At what point in the last 48 hours did Yousaf conclude that the Bute House agreement was over? Or did he dump them before the Greens dumped him?
Yousaf said Ross did not want to talk about substance. He again outlined some achievements of the Scottish government. In contrast, the Tories supported the Rwanda bill, tax cuts for the rich, and further austerity, he said.
At Holyrood it’s first minister’s questions.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, said Humza Yousaf said the SNP deal with the Greens was worth its weight in gold. But now it has turned to dust.
Referring to what the Greens have said about Yousaf today, he asked if for once the Greens had got something right.
Yousaf said the Bute House agreement last 19 times as long as Liz Truss’s premiership. He listed a string of achievements during that time, including the Scottish child payment going up in value. And he said the Tories were responsible for Brexit, “an unmitigated disaster”.
In a snap analysis of the signficance of the SNP ending its power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens, Glenn Campbell, the BBC’s Scottish political editor, says the Scottish Greens might soon need new leadership. He explains:
There was a potential longer term project too.
Some imagined an official or unofficial pact between the parties at the next Holyrood election, with the SNP targeting constituencies and the Greens focusing on the top up lists.
That strategy would have aimed to keep both parties in power and maintain an independence supporting majority in the Scottish Parliament.
New strategies will now be required for both parties – and that may involve some change in the leadership of the Scottish Greens sooner rather than later.
Campbell’s full analysis is here.
Lorna Slater, Scottish Green co-leader, says ‘future generations of Scotland’ betrayed by Yousaf
The Scottish Greens have also held a press briefing following the collapose of their power-sharing agreement with the SNP. Lorna Slater, the party’s co-leader, said “future generations of Scotland have been betrayed” by Humza Yousaf’s decison.
Asked if she had been betrayed, she replied:
I think the future generations of Scotland have been betrayed. The progressive policies that Greens are working towards were about creating a longstanding vision for a greener and fairer Scotland. And now anything we see brought to the chamber will be watered down, delayed, underfunded. It’s a worse future for Scotland.
And here is the full text of the statement Slater issued earlier.
She said it was wrong for Yousaf to end the pact unilaterally, in a “weak and thoroughly hopeless way”, when it would have been more democratic to let Scottish Green party members vote on it.
And she contrasted Yousaf’s stance with the position taken by her and her co-leader, Patrick Harvie. She said:
We as co-leaders of the Scottish Greens were prepared to put our own political careers on the line with our members, to defend our achievements in government, despite enduring all that SNP backbenchers and others threw against us.
Humza Yousaf’s press conference – summary and analysis
Here are the main lines from what Humza Yousaf said at his news conference. But what the reporters were saying was probably just as interesting too. One of the reasons why I often report press conferences in full, covering the questions as much as the answers, is because from the questions you can guage how an event is likely to end up being reported in the papers the following day. Yousaf rejected the claim that his U-turn on the pact with the Scottish Greens was a sign of weakness, but that did not stop the question from being put repeatedly. The tone of the exchanges implied that the Scottish papers (which are not over-favourable to the SNP at the best of times) won’t make pleasant reading for Yousaf tomorrow.
Cooperation in any sphere of life is almost, by definition, a trade off – one in which the benefits of working together are held up against the limitations of compromise.
And when it comes to our the agreement with the Scottish Green party, I believe that the benefits have outweighed the compromises. When I said that the agreement was worth its weight in gold, I meant it.
However, it is now my judgment that the balance has shifted.
The Bute House Agreement was intended to provide stability to the Scottish government, and it has made possible a number of achievements. But it has served its purpose.
It is no longer guaranteeing a stable arrangement in parliament. The events of recent days have made that clear.
Therefore, after careful consideration, I believe that going forward, it is in the best interests of the people of Scotland to pursue a different arrangement.
-
He said that he expected the SNP to continue to cooperate with the Scottish Greens, but in a “less formal” way. He said that governing as a minority government would be “tough”. He also said the SNP would work with other opposition parties. They needed to “step up, he said. In his opening statement he said:
In essence, I hope that we will still be cooperating [with the Scottish Greens] but just returning to, frankly, a less formal arrangement …
We will now step up over ambition, but we will do so as a minority government. That will be tough. We will seek to work not just for the Scottish Greens, but with MSPs from across the chamber.
The SNP has, of course, governed as a minority for most of our time in office and, having served as a minister for a number of years during that time, I’m well used to working constructively with opposition parties where necessary secure parliamentary support.
It was, of course, under that agrement that some of our biggest successes in government were achieved.
And in response to a question, he said:
There’s a serious challenge here to the opposition too. They cannot simply oppose for the sake of opposing. They have to work constructively in order to make sure that we continue as a parliament to achieve for the people of Scotland.
So instead of sniping from the sidelines, as they often do, not coming with anything useful in terms of suggestion, now it’s time for the opposition to also step up.
-
He rejected claims that his decision to abandon the pact with the Greens just 48 hours after he was saying he wanted it to continue was a sign of weakness. Instead, he claimed he was showing leadership. (See 10.25am.)
-
He said that he had been considering ending the pact “for quite some time”, but that he kept defending the Bute House agreement in public because he was reflecting on the matter in private. Asked what changed between now and Tuesday, when he was saying he wanted the deal to continue, he replied:
I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time but, of course, you’d understand that for me it was important to take some of that counsel in private. I’ve been speaking to people that I trust, I’ve been reflecting myself very hard, and often with careful consideration, on what is in the best interests of the country, the government and, importantly and crucially, my party.
Rwanda Act gets royal assent
Royal assent has been granted to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act, the Lord McFall, the Lord Speaker, has told the House of Lords.
That means it is now law.
The Scottish government has published the full text of Humza Yousaf’s open letter to Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater confirming that he has terminated the Bute House agreement.
Here’s an extract.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your service to the Scottish government and for your evident commitment to improving the lives of the Scottish people. The Bute House agreement delivered bold action on pressing social issues, including securing a better deal for tenants and action to tackle poverty and inequality. We have worked together, too, to accelerate our transition to net zero, with a focus on fair work, green jobs and more support for active travel and the launch of free bus travel for under 22s.
We can all be proud of our work together to build a greener, fairer and independent Scotland and for the role you played in working collaboratively to find solutions for the problems confronting the world today.
This spirit of cooperation and consensus-building is in keeping with the founding principles of our Scottish parliament. Those principles will continue to guide my Government’s approach and to be innovative in the ways we serve the people of Scotland.
The cessation of the Bute House agreement should not be a barrier to our parties continuing to work together to make progress on the policies Scotland needs to thrive; not least our shared commitment to securing independence for Scotland and to giving people the right to choose our country’s future.
Q: Is this all about saving your position, and saving seats for the SNP at the election?
Yousaf does not accept that. He says this is about stability.
And at that point he says he had to go, to prepare for FMQs.
I will post a summary of what he said shortly.
Q: Are you worried about losing a pro-independence majority?
Yousaf says there will still be a pro-independence majority in the parliament as a whole.
He says he will still be sharing platforms with the Greens on issues like this.
Yousaf says the SNP is not diminished “in one bit” in its determination to tackle the climate crisis.
