SNP and Greens split days after climate target climbdown

The deal between the SNP and the Scottish Greens to share in the Scottish Government is over, leaving the SNP running a minority administration at Holyrood.

First Minister Humza Yousaf called an emergency meeting of the Scottish cabinet to confirm the decision to pull out of the Bute House Agreement.

The Scottish Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater were seen arriving for a meeting at breakfast time, and leaving a short while later.

READ MORE: How it started - the SNP and Greens get together

Shortly after 9am a blistering statement was released with Lorna Slater accusing the SNP of "political cowardice".

It went on to say Humza Yousaf had ended the agreement in a "weak and thoroughly hopeless way."

There's been intense speculation about the partnership after Green members were angered by the Scottish Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan announcing last week the Scottish Government was to ditch a key climate change target.

That, combined with the decision to pause the use of puberty blockers for new patients attending the only Scottish gender identity clinic for children in Glasgow, resulted in the Greens saying that they would have a vote on the future of the powersharing deal.

That vote was expected to take place later on in May,

What was the Bute House Agreement?

The deal, which was signed in 2021 and is named after the official residence of the Scottish First Minister in Edinburgh, brought the Green Party into government for the first time anywhere in the UK.

It gave the SNP a majority at Holyrood when the votes of its MSPs were combined with those of the seven Greens members, and also made Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater junior ministers in the Scottish Government.

Without it the SNP would need to operate as a minority administration at Holyrood.

High-profile figures in the SNP, such as former leadership candidate Kate Forbes and party stalwart Fergus Ewing, have previously called for the deal to be ended.

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