Humza Yousaf admits he '***** up' in blunt assessment of his downfall
Ex-Scottish first minister speaks out about resignation at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Humza Yousaf admitted he "f***** up" in a blunt assessment of events leading to his resignation as Scottish first minister.
The ex-SNP leader conceded he made a mistake in ripping up the power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens.
Green members had forced a vote on the Bute House Agreement in fury over the ditching of climate targets by the Scottish Government.
But before the vote was held, Mr Yousaf decided to sack co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater from his government and bring the deal to an end.
In response, the Greens said they would back a motion of no confidence in his premiership, effectively forcing his resignation after just over a year in the job.
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Appearing at an Edinburgh Festival Fringe event with broadcaster Matthew Stadlen yesterday, the former Scottish first minister pointed to an interview Mr Harvie did with the BBC where he appeared to question the scientific validity of the Cass Review into gender care for young people.
Mr Yousaf said his "phone blew up" in the minutes after the broadcast.
He said: "It wasn't from the usual malcontents in my party, but reasonable, supportive people, saying this makes the Bute House Agreement very difficult to sustain and I need to think whether to continue it or not.
"The miscalculation I made, is you tend to make your mistakes when you think like a politician in a political bubble and you forget the human dimension.
"And what I did, in my miscalculation was to go, well, the Greens rely so heavily on the SNP for the list vote, if they vote against the SNP Government, and the SNP First Minister, it will be political suicide.
"Of course, the human dimension, which you must always think about, is you're bringing in two of your ministers into Bute House and sacking them very publicly, and they are going to react very badly to that."
He added: "I always said to myself, when I entered politics, that there were two things worth trying to do. One is never trade my principles or values, the other is when it's time to go, own your mistakes that you make.
"Look, I frankly, f***** up."
Speaking after Mr Yousaf's appearance at the event, Ms Slater said: "We respect a lot of the work that he did as first minister, particularly when it came to his commitment to social justice and his response to the genocide in Gaza.
"But we could not back him after he had caved in to some of the most reactionary elements of his party.
"How could we trust that he would remain committed to the Green policies that were part of a deal he had just walked away from, such as rent controls and a ban on conversion practices?"
