![\"Ash](\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/04\/768x432\/skynews-ash-regan-msp-alba_6533402.jpg?20240425204848\")
But, some senior figures within the SNP had said publicly and privately that would be an electoral disaster and seriously harm the nationalist cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One MP said it would go down like a “cup of cold sick”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Yousaf is facing a no confidence vote on his leadership of Scotland, and a separate motion of no confidence has also been tabled in the entire Scottish government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sky News understands Mr Yousaf could now walk on Monday ahead of the vote. However, no final decision has been made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His tune appears to have changed after he insisted during a walkabout in Fife on Saturday he had no intention of resigning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A source told Sky News on Monday morning the first minister said Mr Salmond pulling the strings behind the scenes would be “doing a deal with the devil”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Alba Party’s Westminster leader, MP Neale Hanvey, told Sky News he thinks Mr Yousaf’s “hand is being forced from within the SNP“.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n “It seems that the internal manoeuvrings within the SNP have made it impossible for the First Minister to continue,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I don’t think he would be even considering resigning if he had the support of his parliamentary group and I think reading between the lines, that’s not something that he can depend on now and that’s possibly why he’s been forced to seriously consider resigning.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Westminster, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride told Sky News: “It does seem an extraordinary mess that he’s managed to get him and the SNP into. That they are now potentially going to be beholden to Alba.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n “<\/em>If you look at the SNP’s record, their obsession with independence, I’m afraid, has led to very poor outcomes when it comes to health, when it comes to education and a number of other areas.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Senior Labour MP Ellie Reeves told Sky News there should be an election in Scotland amid the “chaos in the SNP”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SNP had been in a power-sharing agreement with the Greens since 2021 which gave the SNP a majority at Holyrood, as without it the party – then led by Nicola Sturgeon – would have had to operate as a minority administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there had been mounting tensions between the two parties, which ended when the government decided to ditch its flagship target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 after accepting that it is now “out of reach”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before that there had been friction over the decision to\u00a0pause the prescription of new puberty blockers to under-18s\u00a0at Scotland’s only gender clinic, resulting in the Greens announcing they would have\u00a0a vote on the future of the power-sharing deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Humza Yousaf is considering resigning as Scotland’s first minister as early as today, Sky News understands. A senior source has said the embattled SNP leader could “call it quits” today ahead of a key vote of no confidence later this week. Mr Yousaf is facing two no confidence votes at Holyrood in the coming days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[461,12],"tags":[11291,6369,7711,9233,423,911,10196,11638,3577,5491,2264,12634,9674,8601,1828,9974,11743,278,4435,10917,12103,8297,7217,5151,11210,9037,9253,9271,3240,5150,9017,6876,6267,10415,594],"class_list":["post-42467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-world-news","tag-ash","tag-chaos","tag-cold","tag-collapse","tag-education","tag-election","tag-first-minister","tag-forced","tag-future","tag-gas","tag-government","tag-health","tag-humza-yousaf","tag-independence","tag-labour","tag-leadership","tag-majority","tag-mp","tag-nicola-sturgeon","tag-poor","tag-price","tag-resign","tag-sacked","tag-scotland","tag-scotpand-first-minister","tag-scottish","tag-sick","tag-sky","tag-snp","tag-sturgeon","tag-the-devil","tag-vote-of-no-confidence","tag-westminster","tag-work","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42470,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42467\/revisions\/42470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}