SCOTLAND's first minister Humza Yousaf said on Friday (26) he intended to fight a vote of no confidence called by political opponents following his decision to withdraw from a coalition agreement and try to run a minority government.
"I'm quite confident, very confident in fact, that I'll be able to win that vote of no confidence," he told Sky News.
Scottish National Party leader Yousaf ended an alliance with the Scottish Greens after a dispute over a decision to scrap a climate change emissions reduction target last week.
The Scottish arm of the Tory party that governs Britain then said it would seek to topple Yousaf with a no-confidence motion, calling him a "lame duck".
His position now hangs on a knife-edge vote after almost all other parties, including his former coalition partners, said they would vote against him.
With the Tories, Labour, Greens and Liberal Democrats all indicating they have no confidence in Yousaf, he would need the support of Ash Regan - a one-time leadership rival to Yousaf who acrimoniously left the SNP last year - to cling on as first minister.
If Yousaf lost, parliament would have 28 days to choose a new first minister before an election was forced.
The Scottish Labour Party said they would bring a separate motion of no confidence in the government, which could lead to Scottish elections more immediately.
"It would be untenable for the SNP to assume it can impose another unelected first minister on Scotland," leader Anas Sarwar said in a statement, saying an election was needed to give Scotland a "fresh start."
Labour are seeking to regain ground in their former Scottish heartlands after more than a decade of domination by the SNP, and polls indicate they have recovered support as the SNP has faltered.
While the Tories said they would also support Labour's motion, they said it was tactically naive as the Greens might not back it, handing Yousaf a lifeline.
Green lawmaker Mark Ruskell hinted that he would not vote for no confidence in the government overall, saying "it was the poor judgement of Humza in ending the (coalition agreement) that is in question, not the record of the SNP/Green (government)."
Yousaf had said he still hoped to work with the Greens and other opposition parties, but they ridiculed him for abandoning the coalition days after saying he favoured continuing it.
Earlier this month, a YouGov poll put the main British opposition Labour slightly ahead of the SNP in Scotland for the first time since Scottish voters chose to remain part of the UK in a 2014 independence referendum.
Any swing towards Labour, which opposes independence, in a fresh election in Scotland could further damage nationalist hopes of another referendum.
In the Scottish parliament, the SNP has 63 seats out of 129, falling just short of an outright majority. The Greens have seven, the Tories 31, Labour - once the dominant force in Scotland - has 22 and the Liberal Democrats have four.
(Reuters)
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event