Humza Yousaf, the minority SNP government leader, may rely on Alba’s support to survive two confidence votes in the Scottish Parliament next week. Alba leader Alex Salmond has laid out the party’s price for support: pushing Scottish independence to the top of the political agenda, moving away from “identity politics” towards focusing on people’s priorities, and a convention of all pro-independence groupings to agree on a strategy. Mr Salmond has described these demands as “reasonable”. Mr Yousaf could be defeated if the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, and the sole Alba MSP, Ash Regan, vote against him.
Alba is advocating a referendum on whether the Scottish Parliament should have the power to legislate for another independence vote. The party also wants to extend the Scottish parliament’s powers for the negotiation of independence legislation and conduct an independence convention to put it back on the top of the Scottish government’s list of priorities. However, the first minister has dismissed any notion of an electoral pact with Alba for either the general election or any early Holyrood election.
Mr Yousaf severed the power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens, known as the Bute House Agreement, on Thursday. Lorna Slater, Green co-leader, describes it as a “spectacular breach of trust”. The SNP’s former Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, apologised to the Scottish Greens for how the agreement was handled. He urges the Greens to show faith and trust in the first minister.
Alba’s executive will meet to lay out Ms Regan’s demands before talks with Mr Yousaf. The former first minister has backed these proposals, stating that all independence supporters, including the SNP, should support them. If the two confidence motions fail, the MSPs will have 28 days to elect a new first minister or trigger Scottish parliamentary elections
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