Good morning. It was the greatest unforced error in British politics since Liz Truss stuck two fingers up at the Treasury – and it has ended in roughly the same way. Humza Yousaf, the Scottish National party leader and first minister at Holyrood, announced that he was stepping down yesterday. The announcement came a few days after he kicked the Green party out of coalition in an attempt to assert his authority and begin a new chapter for the SNP in government. At least he can say he managed the latter.
As Yousaf exits the stage, his bewildered colleagues are asking how he could have handled the politics of the situation so badly – and looking ahead to a deeply uncertain future for the SNP. Today’s newsletter, with historian of modern Scottish politics Rory Scothorne, is about whether this might have gone differently – and what could happen next. Here are the headlines.
