Humza Yousaf says he’s ‘very confident’ of winning no confidence vote and he will ‘compromise’ with critics – as it happened

Humza Yousaf has told journalists that he will not be resigning and that he will be fighting the confidence vote, Alistair Grant from the Scotsman reports.

There has been speculation that Yousaf might resign ahead of the confidence vote, or votes, next week.

Here is the Scottish government’s news release with more details of the £80m increase for Scotland’s affordable housing supply programme budget announced by Humza Yousaf within the last few minutes. (See 1.20pm.)

And here is an extract from the Yousaf statement included in the news release. The first minister said:

Housing is essential in our efforts to tackle child poverty and reduce inequality across Scotland, and it supports jobs and growth in the economy. Providing good quality, affordable housing is at the very core of what my Government is doing to make Scotland a better place.

While there is a single person homeless in our country, it is simply not acceptable to have houses sitting empty – so I am determined that we remove the barriers, and provide the money that will enable councils to buy properties so they can become affordable homes again.

As Chris McCall from the Daily Record reports, Humza Yousaf is in Dundee, where he is about to announce £80m for affordable housing.

But McCall says he does not think the journalists who are there to cover the visit will have many questions about housing.

Stormont’s health minister Robin Swann has refused to rule out resigning if a budget for Northern Ireland agreed by the power-sharing executive is passed in its current form, PA Media reports. PA says:

The Ulster Unionist minister has called on the Stormont assembly to “strategically review” and change the draft budget, which he has warned could devastate already strained health services in Northern Ireland.

Swann broke ranks as the only member of the four-party power-sharing administration to refuse to back the spending plan which was agreed by his ministerial colleagues yesterday.

It has developed into the first major row within the restored power-sharing administration, undermining the unified approach ministers had previously been keen to project as they pressed the UK government for more money.

While the health service has been allocated more than half the £14.5bn resource budget available to the devolved government, Swann has said it falls well short of the money needed to maintain services at safe levels.

Swann told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme:

What I am saying is a diminished health service, a health service that is actually ravaged by millions of pounds worth of cuts, is bad for people’s health.

I believed that going into this executive .. we heard from across the political parties, across the political spectrum, that health was going to be a priority, waiting list initiatives were going to be a priority. And when I looked at the allocation that was being proposed for health, I don’t see that reflected in the actions or the proposals that were taken.

Asked if he would resign if the budget does not get amended, Swann replied:

I think we as a party will make those calls when we see how this develops through time and I think it will be a number of weeks where we see this budget work out.

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Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has said that Labour wants an election not just for Westminster, but for the Scottish parliament too.

Asked about the situation in the Scottish parliament, Reeves said:

If Anas Sarwar and Scottish Labour are successful with [the Labour no confidence motion – see 10.53am], the government will fall and there’ll be fresh elections.

We now have two broken governments: the SNP in Scotland and the Conservatives in Westminster. It is time for fresh elections in Scotland and across the UK.

Reeves has been campaigning this morning with Keir Starmer in Darlington.

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Downing Street has refused to endorse a suggestion from Micheál Martin, the Irish tánaiste (deputy PM), that the Rwanda policy is already having a deterrent effect.

As the Daily Telegraph reports in its splash, 80% of recent asylum seekers arriving in Ireland have come from Northern Ireland. Martin suggsted that this was because the Rwanda policy was “impacting on Ireland”. He said: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”

Asked if the UK government agreed with Martin’s suggestion, a No 10 spokesperson told journalists at the lobby briefing:

It is too early to jump to specific conclusions about the impact of the Act and treaty in terms of migrant behaviour.

Of course we will monitor this very closely and we already work very closely as you would expect with the Irish government, including on matters relating to asylum.

But of course, the intention behind the Act is to have it serve as a deterrent and that is why we are working to get flights off the ground as swiftly as possible.

A reader asks:

Beyond getting lots of nice photos, has Cameron accomplished anything interesting/useful on his week long trip?

Good question. The Foreign Office claims the answer is yes. It set out the aims of the trip in a news release at the start of the week. Here is an excerpt.

The foreign secretary will visit Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia to as part of government ambition to increase engagement with this pivotal region of the world. He will meet leaders across the region to deepen cooperation on shared challenges, from counter-terrorism to climate change.

He will support global opportunities for young people, by ensuring that English language teachers across the region will have access to tailored British Council English language teaching materials. He will double the amount of funding for Chevening scholarships, so more people can study at Britain’s world-class universities.

He will support British business to create jobs and growth from Bridgend to Bishkek. He will show that British business provides the sustainable, quality investment that can drive growth without compromising the region’s hard won sovereignty.

Ash Regan, the only Alba party MSP, will not back Labour’s motion of no confidence in the Scottish government (see 10.53am), a spokesperson for the party has said. In a statement Alba said:

Anas Sarwar’s grandstanding is just an attempt to remain relevant. However, unionist parties should beware in their glee. As much as Humza Yousaf and the SNP find themselves in a tricky predicament, independence supporters will not turn back to the yoke of Tory and Labour mediocrity. Alba Party are now ensuring that independence supporters have a party they can turn to.

There are 63 SNP MSPs in the Scottish parliament and 64 MSPs from the Conservatives, Labour, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats.

Assuming those four opposition parties all vote solidly together, the SNP needs Regan, a former SNP MSP, to vote with them to avoid defeat. Her vote would lead to a 64-64 tie, but in those circumstances the presiding officer, Alison Johnstone, would, by convention, vote against a no confidence motion.