POLITICS: What next for the SNP after the Bute House agreement is ended?
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The Scottish Government’s formal co-operation agreement with the Scottish Green Party has ended, First Minister Humza Yousaf has confirmed during a press conference held this morning.
Mr Yousaf met Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater and, following a meeting of the Scottish Cabinet, the First Minister informed them formally of the end of the Bute House Agreement, and their tenure as Ministers, with immediate effect.
The full text of the First Minister’s letter:
Patrick, Lorna
I am writing to confirm the decision taken by Cabinet today to bring the Bute House Agreement to an end. This decision is effective immediately.
As per the terms of the Bute House Agreement, this development also marks the end of your tenures as ministers.
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 co-operation 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.
Thank you once again for all you have done to deliver for the people of Scotland. I wish you well for the future.
Reacting Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater MSP accused the SNP of selling out future generations by walking away from the Bute House Agreement.
She said: “This is an act of political cowardice by the SNP, who are selling out future generations to appease the most reactionary forces in the country. Voters deserve better, Scotland deserves better. Scottish Green voters certainly deserve better. They have broken the bonds of trust with members of both parties who have twice chosen the co-operation agreement and climate action over chaos, culture wars and division. They have betrayed the electorate. And by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political cooperation, he can no longer be trusted. In just a few weeks’ time our own members were to have a democratic say on endorsing the co-operation agreement. We are confident they would have supported us in continuing our work for Scotland, as they have done at every turn. Neither they nor SNP members will have that opportunity. Instead, the most reactionary and backwards-looking forces within the First Minister’s party have forced him to do the opposite of what he himself had said was in Scotland’s best interests. By contrast 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. “
Commenting on the end of the Bute House Agreement Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie said “This chaotic and incompetent government is falling apart before our eyes while Scots pay the price. Humza Yousaf is too weak to hold his own government together and he is too weak to deliver for Scotland.Three years into the Bute House Agreement the promises the SNP and Greens made have been torn to shreds. While Humza Yousaf is ditching the Bute House Agreement, he cannot escape the fact that it’s the SNP that has left almost one in six Scots on NHS waiting lists, gutted public services and failed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.None of this changes the fact that it is SNP failures that have left Scots with higher bills, higher taxes, fewer jobs and a health care service on the brink. The collapse of this ill-fated marriage was inevitable but Scotland needs an entirely new government.”
Scottish Conservative shadow rural affairs secretary Rachael Hamilton MSP said: “Rural Scotland has borne the brunt of the SNP shamefully bringing the Greens into government in the first place.The collapse of this agreement is an abject humiliation for Humza Yousaf who described this deal with the Greens as worth its weight in gold. It has not been scrapped in the interests of rural Scotland, he has been bounced into it by his own MSPs.It has been nothing short of a disaster for our rural communities and those living and working there.Firstly Nicola Sturgeon – then Humza Yousaf – allowed the Green tail to wag the SNP dog on so many policies from the disastrous HPMA proposals, to the failure to dual the A9 and A96 and an overwhelming failure to deliver any future clarity for our farmers on what future support will look like.The addition of the Greens to government was a further step to proving that this is a government that is central-belt focused and out-of-touch with the challenges and priorities of rural Scotland.”
