Humza Yousaf should eat a slice of humble pie over Faustian pact with Scottish Greens – Fergus Ewing

The SNP’s power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens was leading them towards electoral hell, argues Fergus Ewing, who was disciplined by the SNP for failing to support a Scottish Green minister

Never have Greens looked so glum as when their ex-ministers left Bute House, having been prised from government office. And so the nightmare of being in a coalition with a party of extremists had finally ended. The Green tail that seemed to wag the big yellow dog has finally been docked.

It was the summer of 2021 that Nicola Sturgeon recommended to the SNP MSP group that we enter this deal. I was the lone voice against it, arguing we would be tarnished by association with them. The SNP had always put the people of Scotland first, but Green ‘policies’ would put about half the population out of work. They wanted to close down our oil and gas sector, the chemical industry, shut down fish farming, curtail sea fishing, instruct farmers how to farm – and not produce much food! How on earth could a party of government associate with these extreme and absurd policies?

But for many it was perhaps their smug sense of superiority on policies about social and moral issues that grated most. On gender reform, the Cass review, conversion therapy, those who did not agree with them were often labelled as “extreme right-wingers”.

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Their sanctimony so enraged tens of thousands of people that they resigned their SNP memberships. Our support in opinion polls and elections has plummeted. Had we remained in this dire deal, we would, in my view, have been annihilated at the 2026 Holyrood election.

Humza Yousaf faced growing pressure for a re-vote of SNP members on the deal. He would have likely lost. The Greens are wholly unsuited to government, not being prepared to listen, compromise, or respond to the public opinion.

Humza Yousaf announces the SNP will withdraw from the Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Greens (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Harvie suggests Yousaf's SNP Government won't last until Christmas

Their appalling record in government drove me to speak out. I simply couldn’t support Lorna Slater remaining a minister. Businesses in my patch said they would have closed their doors had her deposit return scheme gone (DRS) ahead. She was put in charge of a policy with an estimated net present value of £2.5 billion over 25 years. Would anyone in business put a novice trainee manager in charge of such a project? The dud DRS ended up in the policy recycling unit, along with highly protected marine areas, ludicrous heat pump targets, the gender reform law, and climate targets.

I was suspended from the SNP group for the “sin” of not supporting a Green minister. Now Mr Yousaf has sacked them both, I’m not calling on him to be suspended… But I do call on him to conduct a “spring clean” of policies and scrap other dire Bute House Agreement plans.

He has a chance to change the message, focus on priorities like the economy, health and education, and work constructively with the other main parties. Most people want that. That’s what we did successfully with just 47 MSPs under Alex Salmond's excellent leadership.

I don't want Humza to be disciplined as he disciplined me. But consuming a slice of humble pie may go down well with those alienated by the deal with the Greens, a Faustian pact which would have delivered us to the gates of electoral hell. Now he has the opportunity to regain the public’s trust and confidence, and begin the long journey back to popularity and success.

Fergus Ewing is SNP MSP for Inverness and Nairn