Could Ash Regan’s defection be the beginning of the end for Humza Yousaf?

Eight months ago, Ash Regan was a contender for the leadership of the SNP, alongside Kate Forbes and eventual winner Humza Yousaf. Today she quit the party, defected to Alex Salmond’s rival Alba, and becomes that outfit’s first ever MSP. In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, Regan said it had ‘become increasingly clear that the SNP has lost its focus on independence, the very foundation of its existence’. She added that she ‘could not, in good conscience, continue to be part of a party that has drifted from its path and its commitment to achieving independence as a matter of urgency’. 

Regan won Edinburgh East under the SNP banner in 2016 but became increasingly disaffected by the party leadership under Nicola Sturgeon and her successor Yousaf. She resigned as one of Sturgeon’s ministers last October rather than back the gender bill, becoming the first minister in the history of the Scottish parliament to quit on a matter of conscience.