Humza Yousaf 'poised to quit TODAY': SNP leader set to admit he cannot win confidence vote after extraordinary meltdown triggered by sacking Green coalition partners

Humza Yousaf is connected the brink of quitting contiguous amid the bonzer meltdown triggered by sacking his Green conjugation partners.

The Scottish First Minister is poised to spell aft failing to drum up capable enactment to past a assurance vote.

Mr Yousaf has been frantically wooing MSPs implicit the weekend, but appears to person concluded determination is nary mode of surviving. 

Allies person been suggesting the SNP person volition not 'do a woody with the devil' by agreeing presumption with Alex Salmond, whose Alba Party perchance holds the equilibrium astatine Holyrood. 

It would beryllium a melodramatic autumn for Mr Yousaf, who took implicit from Nicola Sturgeon hardly a twelvemonth ago.

After helium summarily ditched the Greens from the Bute House conjugation deal, they person present pledged to backmost a nary assurance question which was expected spell to a ballot aboriginal this week. 

A adjacent person of the person told The Times: 'Humza knows what's champion for the state and the party. He is archetypal enactment activistic and a enactment man, and that's wherefore helium knows it's clip for idiosyncratic else.' 

Veteran Sturgeon state John Swinney is said to person been approached by elder enactment figures to go an interim archetypal curate if Mr Yousaf is forced from office.

The SNP leader, who took implicit from Ms Sturgeon successful March 2023, is facing 2 votes of nary confidence, 1 successful him personally from the Tories and different successful his authorities from Labour.

Excluding the presiding serviceman determination are 128 MSPs successful total, but the SNP lone has 63 votes portion the different absorption parties person 65.

Over the play Mr Yousaf has been exploring options to person 1 of the absorption enactment MSPs to ballot to prevention his government.   

If helium managed to get to 64 votes and necktie the vote, the presiding serviceman would backmost the presumption quo, truthful helium would beryllium capable to clasp on.

The astir apt campaigner helium faced the accidental of converting was Ash Regan, the sole MSP successful Alex Salmond's Alba Party.

Mr Yousaf antecedently described her departure from the SNP successful October past twelvemonth arsenic 'no large loss'. 

Ms Regan, a erstwhile SNP enactment rival to Mr Yousaf, wrote to him with a database of priorities implicit the weekend, including 'defending the rights of women and children'. That is thought to mean accepting the results of the Cass review, which criticised sex therapies, successful full.

The brace went head-to-head during the SNP enactment campaign, wherever she called for much utmost independency tactics and expressed her implicit absorption to some transgender ideology and the Greens successful government. 

Her stance connected sex reforms besides led her to discontinue the furniture during the voting signifier successful 1 of the archetypal displays of discontent wrong the SNP connected the trans issue. 

JK Rowling adjacent waded into the row, saying it is 'karma' that the First Minister is present reliant connected Ms Regan, who defected to Alba successful protestation astatine the SNP's sex ID stance. 

Ms Regan was besides pushing for a committedness to put successful the Grangemouth lipid refinery, and unilateral moves towards an independency referendum.

Speaking connected Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, her brag Mr Salmond effectively laid retired his demands, saying a 'top line' of immoderate treatment with Mr Yousaf would beryllium the thought of reviving the Scotland United strategy – which would spot a azygous pro-independence campaigner basal successful each Scottish constituency.

But those demands person wide been seen arsenic excessively overmuch of a outgo of Mr Yousaf to bear.

A spokesperson for Mr Yousaf dismissed the idea, saying: 'This is fantasy. There is nary anticipation of the First Minister agreeing immoderate woody similar this with Alex Salmond.' 

Meanwhile talks are understood to beryllium taking spot with idiosyncratic Green MSPs to debar a reliance connected Mr Salmond's Alba party. 

If Yousaf was to resign immediately, then the Scottish Parliament would person 28 days to elite a archetypal curate by a elemental majority.

John Swinney, Sturgeon's erstwhile lawman archetypal minister, is expected to beryllium appointed to dependable the vessel portion a enactment contention takes spot successful the SNP.

Other imaginable candidates include Kate Forbes who came 2nd to Mr Yousaf successful the past SNP enactment predetermination with 48 per cent of the vote. 

But her socially blimpish views connected transgender ideology, cheery matrimony and termination would besides spot her rejected by the Greens. 

Tensions had been rising betwixt the SNP and Greens implicit trans and Net Zero policies, but Mr Yousaf's determination to scrap the alleged Bute House statement was inactive a bombshell. 

The Bute House Agreement gave the SNP-led authorities a bulk astatine Holyrood but it came nether strain successful caller days aft the Greens said they would enactment the aboriginal of the woody to a ballot by their members.

Some successful the Greens were unhappy astatine the Scottish Government's caller dropping of 2030 clime targets and the determination to intermission the medicine of caller puberty blockers astatine Scotland's lone sex clinic.

Mr Yousaf rubbed brackish successful the coiled by making his newly-sacked ex-colleagues bash a locomotion of shame successful afloat presumption of cameras. 

In the lead-up to his determination to reportedly quit, Mr Yousaf had been desperately trying to unafraid his endurance with an other vote.

It is understood that letters were sent to Alba Party, Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Greens implicit the weekend. 

However absorption parties appeared to beryllium unmoved by Mr Yousaf's impassioned plea for support, with the dumped Greens, the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems yet to corroborate if they volition conscionable with the SNP leader. 

On Saturday night, Scottish Tory person Douglas Ross, who has written backmost to Mr Yousaf but not said if helium volition judge his invitation to Bute House, said: 'This is simply a humiliating and embarrassing letter, successful which Humza Yousaf is begging to beryllium allowed to support his job. 

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, replied that Mr Yousaf was 'out of time'.

While Scottish Liberal Democrat person Alex Cole-Hamilton said the archetypal curate had 'run retired of road'.