SNP set to govern Scotland as minority after Green coalition collapses

LONDON (Reuters) -The Scottish National Party (SNP) will lead a minority government in Scotland, leader Humza Yousaf said on Thursday, announcing the end of its coalition with the Green Party after a row about climate change targets.

Scotland's move to scrap its climate change goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 last week had put pressure on the coalition agreement which was struck in 2021 after the nationalists failed to secure an outright majority.

The centre-left, pro-independence SNP has led Scotland's devolved government since 2011, but its poll ratings have waned in favour of UK-wide parties since a funding scandal and the resignation of a party leader last year.

Earlier this month, a YouGov poll put Britain's main opposition Labour Party slightly ahead of the SNP for the first time since Scotland narrowly voted to remain part of the United Kingdom in an independence referendum in 2014.

Scottish first minister and SNP leader Yousaf said that while the coalition with the Greens had delivered successes, he now judged that the benefits were no longer worth the compromise needed.

"Going forward, it is in the best interests of the people of Scotland to pursue a different arrangement," Yousaf said at a news conference, adding he had notified the Greens he was terminating the coalition agreement with immediate effect.

"We will now step up our ambition, but we will do so as a minority government."

The SNP now has 63 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) out of 129, with the Greens holding seven. Both parties support Scottish independence, with the Greens previously having held two junior posts in the Scottish government.

The Conservative Party which governs the UK has 31 MSPs, and Labour - once the dominant force in Scotland - has 22.

The SNP's poll leads have waned since then-leader Nicola Sturgeon stepped down in early 2023. Her husband was charged last week with embezzlement of funds from the SNP. She has been arrested and questioned but not charged. They both deny wrongdoing.

(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman, William James and Alistair Smout; writing by Kate HoltonEditing by Elizabeth Piper, Paul Sandle, Peter Graff)