Scotland’s leader Humza Yousaf resigns after a year in power, throwing his pro-independence party into chaos

 Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has resigned barely a year into the role after the collapse of his coalition government, a humbling and chaotic departure that throws Scotland’s ruling pro-independence party into chaos.

Yousaf’s coalition government fell apart unexpectedly last week when he tore up a coalition agreement with Green Party lawmakers following a spat over climate policy, a risky move that backfired spectacularly when the Greens said they would vote against him in a confidence motion.

The ruling SNP will now hold a leadership candidate to replace Yousaf, he announced in a news conference on Monday.

Yousaf took over as the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) party last March, hoping to extend the party’s domination of politics north of the border into a third decade and strengthen the case for a new referendum on Scottish independence.

But the party’s ever-worsening legal woes and a tumultuous coalition agreement put his leadership on brittle footing, and an unforced error to throw two Green lawmakers out of his government sent Yousaf into a five-day fight for his job.

“Unfortunately, in ending the Bute House Agreement in the manner I did, I clearly underestimated the level of hurt and upset that caused Green colleagues,” he admitted in his news conference.

“For a minority government to be able to govern effectively trust when working with the opposition is clearly fundamental,” he said.

The left-leaning SNP has led Scotland’s devolved government since 2007, and forced an independence vote in 2014 in which Scottish voters opted to remain part of the United Kingdom.

Yousaf has argued for another vote to be held in the coming years, insisting that Britain’s exit from the European Union – which Scots had voted against – changed the calculus.

But his calls have been batted back in Westminster and undermined by a long-running police investigation into financial irregularities by the SNP, which has eroded its public support.