Achi news desk-
Mr Greer told the Herald that he had taken significant comments from the membership of the Scottish Greens and was confident that his party would have voted to support the agreement with the SNP continuing at an extraordinary general meeting next month.
“From the conversations I’ve had with the members, and I’ve spoken to a huge number of them over the last few days, I’m very confident that the result of our CCA would be to support the Tŷ Bute Agreement,” he told The Herald.
READ MORE: Analysis: Humza Yousaf’s grip on power reaches the end of the game
READ MORE: Greens to support motion of no confidence in Humza Yousaf
“I understand why our members are angry about a huge range of issues but the central message is that Scotland would have been a fairer, greener place if the Greens were still in government in two years’ time to have done surely we would have achieved things like rent controls and a conversion therapy ban.
“We conveyed our optimism about those discussions to the SNP… what [Humza Yousaf] has done is to take a gamble, he has weakened his own position enormously and it is now clear to people in his own party that he did not want him to be leader.”
Mr Greer, pictured below, added: “If he remains in office after next week he may still have the office but he won’t have any power.
“His authority over his own party has evaporated here. Nobody believes that Humza Yousaf thinks this is a good idea.
“Hours ago he was out batting for the Bute House Agreement, he didn’t get some sort of Damascus conversion to the side against the Bute House Agreement. He is being held hostage by these conservative forces.
“Fergus Ewing described Humza Yousaf two weeks ago as their worst mistake [the SNP] have done, not the Greens. He is now dependent on Fergus Ewing and others like him.”
READ MORE: SNP looking to succeed Humza Yousaf after worst week
READ MORE: Will Humza Yousaf have to resign if he loses a vote of confidence?
Mr Greer continued: “If you’re being generous you’d describe this as a panic move – the way the council tax freeze was a panic move. But the council tax freeze now looks like a minor panic compared to this. He’s panicked. …he’s lost his parliamentary majority this week he couldn’t convince his MLAs to vote for the SNP bill.”
The Greens called GCE last week to discuss whether the party should remain in government after an announcement by net zero secretary Mairi McAllan that it would drop its target to reduce carbon emissions by 75% by 2030.
The environmental organization Friends of the Earth said it was the worst environmental decision since devolution.
Scottish Green members were also unhappy with the decision to delay the prescription of puberty blockers to new patients under the age of 18 only at the Scottish youth gender services clinic in Glasgow – a decision taken in the wake of the Cass Review in Wales and England.
READ MORE: Delayed puberty inhibitors for all new patients in Scotland
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf faces a new leadership test over the Cass Review
Amidst the anger the Scottish Greens said they will support a motion of no confidence in Mr Yousaf.
It is understood that all the party’s MLAs will vote for the proposal that has been put forward by the Conservatives. The vote at Holyrood is expected to take place next week.
Labour, the Liberal Democrats have all said they will support the proposal.
If every MLA in those parties supports the proposal it will mean that it has the support of 63 MLAs. And if all the SNP MLAs voted against, it would mean 62 MLAs opposing it.
Alba MSP Ash Regan has set out a list of demands in exchange for her vote with the SNP.
If he supported Mr Yousaf it would mean an equal vote of 63 each way.
In that situation, it is parliamentary practice for the President to vote to maintain the status quo, which means he would support the SNP side.
Earlier, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, Patrick Harvie, raised questions about whether Mr Yousaf’s government would survive into next year.’
Asked at a hastily arranged press conference whether his party would support Mr Yousaf’s next budget, Mr Harvie replied: “Do you think the current government will be in place by the time of the next Budget?”
The First Minister ended the Bute House Agreement with immediate effect yesterday morning and said the move marked a “fresh start” for his SNP minority Government.
He had defended the agreement a few days earlier saying that there was no ‘need’ or ‘want’ for SNP members to have a new vote on the arrangement continuing after calls from senior officials within the SNP for a rethink.
But during a press conference at Bute House, his official home in Edinburgh, the First Minister said: “It no longer guarantees a stable arrangement in Parliament, the events of the last few days have made that clear, and so , after careful consideration, I believe going forward that it is in the best interests of the people of Scotland to follow a different arrangement.
“That is why, following a discussion with my Cabinet this morning, I have formally informed Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater that I am terminating the Bute House Agreement with immediate effect.”
