Why has the coalition government collapsed in Scotland – and what happens next?

Why did the SNP go into coalition with the Greens?

The SNP fell one seat short of winning a majority at Holyrood at the 2021 election.

In the previous parliament, when Nicola Sturgeon ran a minority administration, the SNP was forced into making a series of concessions to the Greens to win crucial confidence votes in ministers and pass budgets.

Ms Sturgeon felt that a more formal deal with Holyrood’s other pro-independence party would allow the SNP to govern with more stability.

Allowing the Greens into government in August 2021 also allowed Ms Sturgeon to bolster her environmental credentials ahead of the Cop26 Climate Summit, which took place in Glasgow in November.

It was also claimed a majority pro-independence government at Holyrood would make it harder for the UK Government to deny a new referendum on leaving the UK, though demands to enter talks were still swiftly rejected.

What did the SNP agree to?

The deal between the parties, known as the Bute House Agreement, saw the Greens secure several significant commitments while also seeing its two co-leaders appointed ministers.

It was the first time in the UK that Green ministers entered government.

Greens have been behind controversial rent controls and an eviction ban for private tenants, new environmental standards for buildings and free bus travel for under- 22s.

They also secured commitments to improve transgender health care and bring in a “comprehensive” ban on so-called conversion therapy regarding sexual orientation and gender.

The agreement included a commitment to overhaul the Gender Recognition Act, to bring in a self-ID system which was passed by MSPs but proved highly controversial and was later blocked by the UK Government.

The deal was put to a vote of both SNP and Green members, who backed it at the urging of party leaders.

There were a few excluded areas on which the parties could still disagree, such as freeports, the importance of economic growth and Nato membership.

Was the deal popular?

Initially, the Greens pointed to a series of concessions they had extracted from the SNP which they said showed they were wielding considerable power in government.

However, sections of the SNP were always unhappy with the agreement, seeing the Greens as a far-Left collection of cranks who were responsible for a series of toxic policies.

The deal first came under considerable strain after Nicola Sturgeon quit as first minister.

Humza Yousaf, who was seen as the “continuity candidate”, strongly backed the coalition in the contest to replace her but Kate Forbes and Ash Regan, who also ran, would have scrapped it.

After Mr Yousaf narrowly defeated Ms Forbes, he showed his enthusiastic backing for the deal. One of his first photocalls after winning the contest was with Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, the Scottish Greens’ co-leaders and its two ministers.

However, a deposit return drinks container recycling scheme, which Ms Forbes had vowed to scrap, collapsed within months in a major humiliation for Ms Slater, who was given the task of implementing the policy.

More recently, tensions emerged over the scrapping of climate targets, and after the Greens denounced the Cass Review into gender identity healthcare.