Humza Yousaf has bequeathed his successor a tricky situation for the next two years

Humza Yousaf may have quit as First Minister but it looks as if the SNP government will live to fight another day.  The Greens, who were set to back the Tory vote of no confidence in Mr Yousaf, will not vote for Labour's motion to bring down the whole Scottish Government.

But whoever takes over the SNP helm now will be leading a minority government, which means constant deals with other parties on an issue-by-issue basis to get legislation through and win votes in parliament.   

Humza Yousaf leaves after announcing his resignation as First Minister. Picture: Andrew Milligan/pool/AFP via Getty Images

In his resignation speech Mr Yousaf insisted he had done the right thing in ending the power-sharing deal with the Greens - though he acknowledged he had "underestimated" the hurt and upset the decision caused. But he has bequeathed his successor a tricky situation for the next two years up until the 2026 Holyrood elections.

Hunting for MSPs who will side with you in a vote is not just for motions of confidence, it's for the rest of the life of this parliamentary session. 

Minority government is not new to Holyrood.  When the SNP first won power back in 2007, it had only 47 seats out of the 129, but survived a full term with relatively few defeats. And the SNP did the same again between 2016 and 2021.

But one of reasons Nicola Sturgeon signed the Bute House Agreement with Greens after the 2021 elections was to avoid votes of confidence like the ones which she and her deputy John Swinney survived towards the end of that parliament.

By then the political situation had become much more febrile, not least due to the spectacular fallout between Ms Sturgeon and her erstwhile mentor Alex Salmond. And in an echo of that bitter episode, SNP insiders made clear that in the effort to secure the necessary otes for Mr Yousaf to survive there could be no concessions to Mr Salmond's Alba party.  Any such move would be "a deal with the devil" and "intolerable".

Although Green co-leader Patrick Harvie says his party "stands ready" to work with a new SNP leader, no-one is expecting a formal arrangement. It's going to mean repeated negotiations.

And the need to keep the door open to co-operation with the Greens could also influence the choice of SNP leader. Mr Harvie was clear that Kate Forbes - who, as the close runner-up last time, would otherwise be the likely favourite - was not an appealing prospect.

He described Ms Forbes' conservative social views as "pretty shocking" and also highlighted her criticism of progressive taxation. "If they were to choose to lurch to the right it would be dishonest of me not to make it clear that would make it very difficult for them to reach agreement with us. In that circumstance they would need to rely on the support of other conservatives."

Several other names have been floated. But already leading figures have begun to rally round the idea of bringing back John Swinney - who himself stepped down as SNP leader 20 years ago, after four years in the job. A coronation would allow them to avoid another divisive leadership contest close to a general election, but opposition parties are saying Mr Swinney’s own record was not a raging success.