DEAD MAN WALKING?

Opposition turn on First Minister as future looks bleak for SNP leader

- PAUL HUTCHEON

HUMZA Yousaf had no option but to throw his Green allies over board - but with the sharks circling, he is beginning to look like a lame duck leader.

He ditched his coalition partners only to walk into a vote of no confidence that could cost him his job.

The Greens, who are hungry for revenge, are now trying to help bring him down.

Yousaf is a man desperately looking for a life-raft that does not exist.

He has enemies on the left, foes on the right and colleagues wanting his job.

He is in big trouble.

There is little doubt he made the right decision in ejecting the Greens from government and ending the Bute House Agreement.

By agreeing to a members' vote on the SNP deal, Patrick Harvie's party turned the government into a pantomime.

If Yousaf had sat on his hands, the next four weeks would have been dominated by the country listening to the niche demands of Green members.

SNP Ministers would have been conscripted into keeping their mouths shut for fear of upsetting the junior partners in government.

Yousaf needed momentum after a terrible first year - the Green vote threatened any revival. It would also have muzzled the SNP on the eve of a critical general election for the First Minster.