Alex Salmond reacts: Humza Yousaf steps down as leader of the SNP

this is all your fault isn't it you you laid out a whole series of Demands and uh humy USF said he was not willing to trade on his values and principles just to stay in power you're so wide of the B I don't know where to start halfast 7 this morning H youf described the suggestions were made as eminently reasonable that had nothing to do with it if it had been left to hum a Yousef then he would have come to an accommodation with alipa but of course it's not he he bent to pressure from some of the old guard in the SMP who were Furious that he was contemplating doing a deal of course you know if he hadn't been prepared to do a deal with aliper then he wouldn't have asked Ash Reagan to talks I that's is self-evident but unfortunately the divisions within the SMP and ultimately they were prepared to sacrifice a first Minister as opposed to to have to accept that many of the things that alipa have been saying of late have been proven to be correct aart part nothing else taking the eye completely off the ball on the achievement of Independence as an immediate priority uh given the let's be honest Glee that non-conservative politicians have uh enjoyed what has happened to the Tory party over the last couple of years uh whether it was Boris Johnson in party gate Liz truss and the lce the de you know all the struggles that rishy sunx had what do you make about this now happening in your own house you you led the S SMP for a long time you were first minister you ultimately share the ambition of Independence isn't the truth that this has made the SNP a laughing stock and killed any Prospect of Independence it certainly kill not killed the prospect of independence mean one of the remarkable things of course as the SNP unfortunately has descended into misg government over the last two or three years it's not comes of us it didn't start with hum a Yousef I mean it's been going on for several years now I mean in a way he inherited the Po and Chalice of course one of the key problems he had but despite all that support for Scottish independence remains at 50% now that and listen if IID started off back in 2007 with Independence at 50% I would have had have been rejoicing every day and twice on Sundays you know Fant so why why is that happening I think that's because the cause of Independence is decoupling from the SNP as a as a political part party that's a strength as opposed to a weakness but of course you have to arrange the political Furniture in such a way as the people in the Scottish parliament are actually trying to get independence not just enjoying themselves in the Scottish Parliament now but you have let me yet say a word about humza because you know this is the day of his resm I do feel for him I've been there I know how difficult it is uh so I wish him and his family well for the future it's a good point that um Alex I suppose that just finally on I take your point that it's it's split down the middle just over half of people uh in some poll saying they support Independence just over half in others saying they don't but you're not going to get a second referendum if the S&P go backwards in the coming general election and then the next Hollywood elections as and when they happen well I think the key I mean it depends who goes forwards when the SNP go backwards and I'm hoping that other Independence parties particularly alipa will start to move forwards and I'm certain that will happen at the next Scottish elections it's a question of just how far and how fast that process will go so you know Independence doesn't just depend on the SNP it depends on people voting for Independence parties and hopefully independent parties who who mean what they they say on the 10 H you know people say what what what what's going to be the result of all of this well two things i' put to you is this one is that the green party are going to suffer very badly because what they showed over the last few days that they were prepared to vote for a unionist Tory motion of no confidence in a nationalist first minister to unseat uh an independent supporting Administration now people didn't vote for the greens and the second vote in the Scottish Parliament to allow them to do that they're going to pay a price for that and secondly of course there won't be a new green deal I mean unless the greens are successful in dictating exactly who is the next leader of the S SMP which I don't think S&P members will accept but whoever comes in I doubt very much if they'll go back into with the greens they'll try to govern as a as a minority government and of course that means that the political arithmetic that humza use of has been facing over the last few days will remain exactly the same and Ash Reagan's role in the Scottish Parliament albe it she's a single alipa MSP is going to be extraordinary powerful because every time there's a vital vote uh whoever's the next first Minister will be beating a path to Ash Reagan's door absolutely because the math is very close uh Alex I going appreciate your time F former first Minister Alex samon there joining us on time ready reacting to the news that hum USF has resigned as leader of the SNP he says he'll remain uh as first Minister while his replacement has uh is found uh no word yet on anyone who might throw their hat into the ring although John SNY the former deputy first minister to Nicholas ston has been widely talked about as a uh possible caretaker uh leader hum USF there tearing up at the end as he confirms he is quitting as first minister of Scotland after just 389 days in the job he even talked at one point about saying he'd be nice if everyone could be first Minister for a day well maybe that's uh going to be the policies they go for us he said he was not willing to compromise on his principles in order to stay in power reference I think to uh some of the demands of other parties including ala uh in terms of uh trying to get support for those confidence votes uh he said uh that he was handing over the Baton to his successor uh but felt that uh they were still they would be the ones who could deliver Independence he defended multiculturalism deed cultur Wars and populism uh but ultimately said he was unable to to continue to lead Scotland joining me now call McDonald times ra K McDonald and a politic k m still here um Callum an admission in a way that his his gamble last week just hadn't paid off he pulled the plug on the but house agreement with the green party lots of people outside uh his closest teams and what did he expect to happen yeah I think that's right so the kind of the message over the course of the last few days since the but house agreement was terminated has been the manner in which hza yusf ended that is what sent the greens running frankly they were angry they were properly angry over the last few days about how they were treated and as a reminder of that huse have basically made the decision uh summoned Patrick Harvey and Lura sler the co-leaders of the Scottish green party to but house for an early morning meeting he had a cabinet meeting the cabinet backed the termination of the but house agreement and then the two leaders of the green party were informed and then they were sent out the front door into the face of the news cameras and the journalists who were waiting for them and and almost immediately put out an absolutely eviscerating statement uh questioning uh basically uh the the manner in which this happened and crucially in that statement I'm just thinking back to it Laura Slater pointed to the issue of trust that the way in which this had been done was a matter of trust and actually humza yussef mentioned that that trust is clearly fundamental in any sort of working relationship such as the one the but house uh agreement was supposed to maintain he also did concede in the press conference there I underestimated the hurt that the manner of ending the but house agreement would cause but as you say Matt you know the consideration here is that actually he could have stepped back and said look you as the Scottish greens are clearly unhappy with the ditching of the Net Zero climate Target the SNP members of the SNP certainly have been unhappy with the but house agreement for quite some time so in retrospect he could have opened he could have reopened the agreement for some period of renegotiation he did not do that he burned the Scottish greens and in turn uh they fought back backing a Scottish conservative motion of no confidence in the first Minister and that I think is the crucial political miscalculation that he made that the greens would side with the Tories andon his speech there Kate repeatedly making the case for Independence uh he said that the last few miles of the marathon are off on the heart he then got a bit confus his metaphor he start talk about passing the bat on which you don't do in Ms if you're doing that it's all God long but still claiming that the independence is on the card actually the truth is uh the S&P are going backwards in the polls they did when Nicholas sturgeon stepped down and if anything's only got worse under him USF uh in the situation where the labor party are on the up uh any Prospect of a second referendum is so far off and actually lots of the criticism ofs us have is he seem spend all of his time publishing yet more Independence white papers rather than I don't know keeping the greens happen yeah although I think it I wonder if it's an indication of the fact that there is a feeling that the S&P have strayed away from their main sort of purpose for being and that is what has caused them a lot of problems in Scotland feeling that actually they've started to get far more involved in issues which maybe you know while they are important are not necessarily the guiding principle the reason why people choose to vote for them in the first place and that if you lose your sense of what your party is supposed to be about it becomes much easier for people to vote for somebody else because you lose your identity it's worth just saying um that what H Yousef has done he has formerly steep down as the leader of the S SMP but he will remain as first Minister and that is really important now because he could have decided to resign from both of those positions today hasn't done that if he had they would have triggered a 28-day period to find a new leader new first Minister what he has actually said that he wants to do is to stay in place until they can find somebody to replace him and I think that the way that the S&P does that well the way that that process works is quite complicated um it it will mean there will be a period of flux within the party within politics in Scotland and also a question about whether or not he's going to be allowed to do that to stay on you know in that role as first Minister until they can find a replacement there been some discussion today about John swi who of is in Westminster actually for an event today and has been asked about his next steps I think we are expecting to hear from him at some point today he was waiting for this press conference to be over until we got to that point but you know it's a really difficult time for the party very difficult time um in terms of the politics in Scotland actually and as you say you know things have not necessarily been going well up there for quite some time

Channel: Times Radio

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Id: OXuKUMyN8-8

Length: 11min 17sec (677 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2024