‘Served its purpose’: Humza Yousaf ends power-sharing deal with Greens – video
The historic power-sharing agreement between the Scottish National party and Scottish Greens is to end after a crisis over the government’s climate strategy.
Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, said he had told the Scottish Green co-leaders he was terminating the Bute House agreement with immediate effect.
It means the Green co-leaders, Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie, are no longer part of the Scottish government and the SNP will operate as a minority administration.
The Bute House agreement was signed in August 2021 by the then SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, and Harvie, bringing the Greens into government for the first time in the UK.
Yousaf, Sturgeon’s successor as first minister, convened an emergency cabinet meeting early on Thursday after SNP backbenchers began openly attacking the deal.
‘The public are fed up of Liz Truss. She destroyed many of the hopes and aspirations of a generation’
Stephen Flynn MP has been praised online after laying into the legacy of Liz Truss following her stint as Prime Minister and offered her some sound advice.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss has spent the week promoting her new book and attempting to deflect from the economic damage caused in the aftermath of her and Kwasi Kwarteng’s infamous mini-budget two years ago.
However the real-life effects of her disastrous, unfunded tax cuts were laid out by the Scottish National Party Westminster leader, who was commended for his sharp takedown of her time in and after Downing Street.
Asked on ITV’s Peston show this week where he would put the balance of responsibility for the fiscal crisis caused by the mini-budget, Flynn laid into the Tory Party and Liz Truss’s legacy.
During the interview on Wednesday, Flynn said: “It’s on the Conservative party’s doorstep because it was the Conservative party as an entirety that put Liz Truss in the position where she was able to do the damage that she did.”
Image: The Spring Budget is due to be delivered on 6 March 2024 | Credit: iStock
MPs from Labour, Lib Dems, Green Party, SNP, Plaid Cymru, and Alliance have jointly called for a green investment-friendly Spring Budget on Wednesday
A group of cross-party MPs and peers have called on the Chancellor to prioritise new public investment in net zero infrastructure and skills in this week’s Spring Budget, in a move they argue would help to “futureproof our economy and our energy system”.
In a letter addressed to Jeremy Hunt on Friday, Parliamentarians from across political divides urged the Chancellor to “use the forthcoming Spring Budget to address the ongoing underinvestment crisis the UK is facing” by funnelling more public spending to help deliver on net zero goals.
It also calls on the government to publish a Net Zero Investment Plan in order to “identify and close the gap between actual and required financial flows” and help catalyse increased investment from the private sector.
And the letter calls on the Treasury to work with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to set out a plan to ensure “every household has access to energy efficiency measures and fossil-free heat via a combination of grants and low-cost loans”.
Stephen Flynn has hit back at the Speaker for refusing to allow the party an emergency debate (Image: PA)
THE SNP have accused the Westminster system of “failing the people of Gaza” after the Speaker denied the party an emergency debate on calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Lindsay Hoyle rejected the party’s application for a fresh debate on the issue on Monday afternoon, despite explicitly offering one after his decision to allow a Labour amendment during the SNP’s opposition day debate meant there was no formal vote held on the SNP’s motion.
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The SNP tabled a new motion for an emergency debate so the UK Parliament could vote for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel and push the UK Government to take “concrete steps” to help make a ceasefire happen.
Following Hoyle’s decision, a furious Flynn said: “Yet again, Westminster is failing the people of Gaza by blocking a vote on the urgent action the UK Government must take to help make an immediate ceasefire happen.
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Read the SNP’s full emergency debate motion below:
That this House officially reaffirms its position, as of 21st February 2024, to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel; further reaffirms its horror at the October 7th 2023 terrorist attacks by Hamas and the subsequent collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza; demands the release of all hostages taken by Hamas; condemns any military assault on the 1.5 million refugees sheltering in Rafah; further demands the Government immediately halts all transfers of military equipment and technology, including components, to Israel, and to suspend the issuing of new licences; calls on the international community to ensure the rapid and unimpeded humanitarian relief is provided in Gaza; further calls for an end to settlement expansion and violence; urges Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures; and urges all international partners to work together to establish a diplomatic process to deliver the peace of a two-state solution; recognises that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people and not in the gift of any neighbour; instructs the Government to vote for an immediate ceasefire, or wording with that effect, during the next relevant motion brought before the United Nations Security Council.
