Mr Yousaf faced a threatening series of no-confidence votes in the Scottish Parliament this week after he broke the SNP's power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens. Without the Greens, the SNP will be left with a minority government, and Yousaf appears to be the first victim of that new reality. He admitted on Monday that he had “clearly underestimated” the damage he had done to the Greens by abruptly breaking the coalition.
The SNP and Greens had previously worked together under a deal struck by Mr Yousaf's predecessor, which reinforced the Greens' policy of rapidly decarbonising Scotland.
However, Yousaf's government has abandoned its pledge to cut carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030. The problem for the SNP was that Scotland still had a fossil fuel economy based on oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.
The Greens also wanted to push through tougher rent controls and a ban on so-called conversion therapy, while the SNP backed the National Health Service's recommendation to “pause” access to puberty blockers for under-18s. .
Yousaf said he would continue to serve as prime minister until his party selects a successor. There are 28 days left until then.
The announcement sent the Scottish National Party to a new low.
Former long-serving First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will step down in February 2023, suggesting she is tired of the spotlight and misses having coffee with friends or going for quiet walks.
“I know in my head and in my heart that the time is now,” Ms Sturgeon said.
Last week, Ms Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell was charged with embezzling Scottish National Party funds, which may have included the purchase of a $120,000 recreational vehicle parked at her mother's home. There is sex.
Mr Murrell was the SNP's chief executive for 22 years. Sturgeon herself was questioned by police, but he was released without charge. The couple's home was searched.
In his resignation speech, Yousaf said that as a boy born in Glasgow to Pakistani immigrants, “there was no one who looked like me in a position of power.”
“The evidence is quite the contrary,” Yousaf said today, pointing to himself, Vaughan Gething, the Zambian-born first minister of Wales, and Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister whose parents were Indian immigrants. He left East Africa for Britain in the 1960s.
Following his resignation, Mr Yousaf will continue to serve as an MP from the back benches of the Scottish Parliament.