The Scottish Government has announced the ending of the Bute House Agreement, which saw co-operation between the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Greens.
Signed in August 2021, the agreement brought the Greens into the fold and saw co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater forming part of the Scottish Government. Now that the agreement has ended, the Scottish National Party are to operate as a minority administration.
In a letter to Slater and Harvie, First Minister Humza Yousaf said:
“I am writing today to confirm the decision taken by Cabinet today to bring the Bute House Agreement to an end. This decision is effective immediately.
“As per the terms of the Bute House Agreement, this development also marks the end of your tenures as ministers.”
The cessation of the agreement comes after a reported disagreement over the Scottish Government’s climate strategy, with the Scottish Greens’ grassroots members pushing back on the decision to scrap the target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030. Following this, an emergency general meeting on the future of the Bute House Agreement was announced by the co-leaders, however the earliest this could take place was in May, leaving the SNP unsure of the future of their co-operation agreement.
Despite the ending of the agreement, First Minister Yousaf claimed that the parties would still work together on securing the future of Scotland. He continued:
“This spirit of co-operation and consensus-building is in keeping with the founding principles of our Scottish Parliament. Those principles will continue to guide my Government’s approach and to be innovative in the ways we serve the people of Scotland.
“The cessation of the Bute House Agreement should not be a barrier to our parties continuing to work together to make progress on the policies Scotland needs to thrive; not least our shared commitment to securing independence for Scotland and to giving people the right to choose our country’s future.”
In a statement released just before the First Minister held his press conference announcing the split, the Scottish Greens’ co-leader Slater accused the SNP of ‘selling out future generations’ and claimed that the move was an ‘act of political cowardice. She wrote:
“Voters deserve better, Scotland deserves better. Scottish Green voters certainly deserve better.
“They have broken the bonds of trust with members of both parties who have twice chosen the co-operation agreement and climate action over chaos, culture wars division. They have betrayed the electorate.
“And by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political cooperation, he can no longer be trusted.”
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