Humza Yousaf is to resign as Scotland’s first minister as early as today, the BBC understands.
The SNP leader is expected to stand down following the collapse of the Bute House Agreement – his party’s power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens – on Thursday.
Mr Yousaf has been struggling to secure support to lead a minority government.
He is due to face two confidence votes this week – one in him personally, the other in his government.
Mr Yousaf had written to Scotland’s opposition parties asking them to find “common ground” ahead of the votes.
The Scottish Greens were due to convene later to decide whether to accept Mr Yousaf’s invitation to a meeting.
The first minister’s decision to end the SNP’s deal with the Greens followed a backlash over the SNP’s decision to scrap 2030 climate targets.
The Greens accused Mr Yousaf of “selling out future generations” over climate and had been due to hold a vote on whether to remain in power with the SNP in response.
Some Greens are also unhappy about NHS Scotland’s decision to pause the prescription of puberty blockers following a landmark review of gender services in England by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass.
The SNP has 63 MSPs in the 129 seat parliament, so if the seven Green MSPs vote against him, he is reliant on support from the sole Alba party MSP Ash Regan to continue in his role.
Mr Yousaf has reportedly ruled out cutting a deal with Alba, a pro-independence party formed by former First Minister Alex Salmond after he broke from the SNP.
Alba’s support would lead to a 64:64 tied vote in which case the presiding officer would be expected to vote to maintain the status quo.
The motion of no confidence in him personally is not binding, but if he lost he would come under intense pressure to step down.
If he lost the government vote, MSPs would have 28 days to vote for a new first minister or automatically trigger a Scottish Parliament election.
