Hope you had a cracking weekend. What a weekend its been because its a long time in politics. 48 hours humza yousaf on friday at close of play said i vow to fight on now hes had it. Hes history. Hes history. Hes history. Hes stepping down. Finally face the music. What next for scotland . Will they ditch at last . The trans politics, the hate crime stuff and the net zero zealotry . Or is that too much to hear for get in touch all the usual ways, and theres a new way to do that. Send your views and post your comments by visiting gbnews. Com yoursay. Ive just logged in. Youll see my ugly mush. Leave some replies, keep them clean. Ill leave and ill them clean. Ill leave and ill read out a few before the end of the show. Loads of gets stuck into. But first its time for your latest News Headlines. Very good afternoon to you. Its just after 3 00 and we start with the latest developments in our top story this afternoon, that a contest for a new snp leader will now take place, after the Scottish First minister announced his resignation, humza yousaf admitted he underestimated the level of upset caused by cutting political ties with the greens. Hell continue in his post until a replacement is found. Mr yousaf says that hes quitting to help repair relationships across the scottish political divide. Divide. I could never have dreamt that one day i would have the privilege of leading my country. Privilege of leading my country. People who looked like me were not in positions of political influence. Let alone leading governments when i was younger. But we now live in a uk that has a british hindu Prime Minister, a british hindu Prime Minister, a muslim mayor of london, a black welsh first minister and for a little while longer , the for a little while longer, the scots first minister of this country. So for those who decry country. So for those who decry that multiculturalism has failed across the uk, i would suggest that the evidence is quite to the contrary. The contrary. Following that announcement, former deputy first minister john sweeney says hes now carefully considering whether to run as the snps next leader. Ive got lots of things to think about and theres the whole question of my family and ihave whole question of my family and i have to make sure that i do the right thing by my family. Theyre precious to me. I have to do the right thing by my party and by my country. So theres lots to be thought about, and ill give all of that consideration in the days to come. Come. Two men are due in court this afternoon charged with murder afternoon charged with murder after a torso was found at a nature reserve in salford. Nature reserve in salford. Greater Manchester Police believe human remains at three other locations also belong to the same victim, thought to be a man in his 60s. Though formal identification is ongoing, the initial discovery was made by a member of the public at kersal dale wetlands three and a half weeks ago. In other news, a man weeks ago. In other news, a man has admitted killing a pensioner who was on a mobility scooter in west london. Lee byers stabbed 87 year old Thomas Ohalloran in the neck and chest in what was described as a motiveless attack in august 2022. It happened just five days after the 45 year old was released from prison. He denied murder but did plead guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility. Diminished responsibility. Dozens of migrants have been rescued from the channel after their small boat got into difficulty off the french coast. Difficulty off the french coast. Its understood a number of people were pulled out from the water and taken to the port at calais. The latest rescue operation comes after Senior Border force officials have raised concerns that people in small boats are using children as human shields to evade french police. Last week, over 900 migrants crossed to the uk, with 359 arrivals on saturday alone. 359 arrivals on saturday alone. 51 were rescued after they ran aground. A debate on whether aground. A debate on whether assisted dying should be legalised for terminally ill people will be held later this afternoon. If youre watching on television , these are live television, these are live pictures coming to us from outside parliament, where campaigners have gathered in their hundreds. Its after more than 200,000 people signed a petition backed by dame esther rantzen, calling for a change to the law. Assisted suicide is the law. Assisted suicide is currently banned in england, wales and in Northern Ireland. In scotland, though its not a specific criminal offence, but people who do help others to end their own lives risk being charged with murder or other offences. And those who oppose offences. And those who oppose the change in the law say that Vulnerable People could be pressured into ending their lives. New laws protecting lives. New laws protecting consumers from hacking and Cyber Attacks are now in force, with all Smart Devices required to meet minimum security standards. Meet minimum security standards. Manufacturers of products like phones, tvs and smart doorbells are now legally required to protect internet connected devices against possible access by criminals. Common passwords like one, two, three, four, five are now banned in the uk as part of a world first legislation, and users will be prompted to change them. And were being change them. And were being warned to brace ourselves for even more food price rises with been even more food price rises with beer, biscuits and bread among the items expected to jump. The wet weather has meant that harvests of barley and wheat could be down by as much as a fifth. Storms and flooding throughout the last few months have also forced british farmers to constantly delay sowing. Sowing crops. The warning comes sowing crops. The warning comes just as food prices are beginning to fall following soaring inflation was sparked by the global gas price crisis. The global gas price crisis. Thats the latest from the newsroom. Ray addison will have your next update at 3 30. Until then, do sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the code on your screen, or go to gbnews. Com slash alerts. Thank you sam. Now of course, we kick off the hour with the big news this monday afternoon that Scottish National party leader humza yousaf has sensationally quit, triggering a search for a successor and a new first minister. The first minister made a statement at bute house earlier on. Lets take a listen. Ive concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm. Helm. Well, members of the Scottish Parliament now have to back a replacement in that post within 28 days. Lets go live to edinburgh, scotland. Reporter edinburgh, scotland. Reporter tony mcguire. Tony, welcome to the show. Well, on friday when we last spoke at close of play , we last spoke at close of play, humza yousaf said hed fight on. Now hes simply dropped out. But lets face it tony, he jumped before he was pushed into. Before he was pushed into. Yes thats correct martin. I mean, very much not too dissimilar from what actually happenedin dissimilar from what actually happened in thursday morning. You know, he jumped from the bute house agreement before the greens pushed themselves out of it. And then, sure enough, if you were keeping up with things over the weekend, you could see that he was really caught between a rock and a hard place. On whether he was trying to support and gain support from both either alba or , you know, both either alba or, you know, go back to the scottish greens. Either way , there were factions either way, there were factions within the snp that wouldnt have been happy in this morning. You know, we saw the culmination of all that and indeed his resignation. So as you say, 28 days for the Scottish National party to find a replacement. Otherwise we go to a Scottish Election. Now, theres already been some names thrown into the mix. John swinney, who we actually spoke to earlier on now he was Nicola Sturgeons deputy first minister. He didnt want the job when his first minister left. But you know hes refusing to rule himself out now, which is an interesting take. You know , hes wants to make sure, as we heard in the bulletin, there , heard in the bulletin, there, this is right for his family, for the party, for the country. And indeed, you know, a lot of people would think that he would be the continuity candidate for Nicola Sturgeons continuity candidate. And theres Big Questions about whether that strategy is actually worked out well enough for the snp to move on to give it another go. And on to give it another go. And then weve also got, of course , then weve also got, of course, kate forbes and you know, she is in the running, as well as some unknown names like neil grey. But whats interesting is that a lot of people are now coming out on to social media. Theyre wanting to share anas sarwar. Hes still after his election. Of course, he put in that vote of no confidence as well as, you know, he thinks that this snp still completely incapable of leading the country. But interestingly, douglas ross, you know, speaking earlier on today and obviously leader of the scottish conservatives , he said scottish conservatives, he said its clear humza yousaf has decided to jump. Before he was pushed, as you say. But he also said we will continue to work tirelessly to hold the snp to account. Now clearly hes not expecting us to go to an election any time soon. It may be that hes working to give the snp space to recalibrate now. John swinney, when he spoke to his earlier on today, certainly he said that, you know, he intends the snp to go into the next two years, 2026 is the next Scottish Election and it may well be that we will still have an snp government. Well be that we will still have an snp government. However, an snp government. However, a minority by that point. Minority by that point. Okay, tony mcguire, superb as eve r. Even thank you for that update. Thank you for that update. Live from outside holyrood and lets go live now , lets move on lets go live now, lets move on to our next guest and well speak to freelance columnist at the scotsman, alastair stewart, to get his reaction. Alastair, to get his reaction. Alastair, welcome to the show. So we spoke at the tail end of last week. Humza yousaf went mic woke and now hes gone. Mic broke , a now hes gone. Mic broke, a fantastic series of events. Ive never seen a political act of harry carey like it. On thursday morning he ejected the greens from government in a bid to stabilise his leadership, everything that could go wrong after that has gone wrong. Hes now quit today, quite rightly, before he was pushed, it was very much anticipated that he would lose two votes this week, one that was going to be in him as first minister and the second in his government. And there are serious questions, existential questions now facing the snp of how they deliver on the priorities for scotland to use a political phrase, but also where they want to go next in independence and who can best be the leader to take that forward. Take that forward. Hard questions and hard times for the party and alyssa, do you think we might see some common sense return to a bit of a deep reboot of politics . Scottish politics seem to take this diversion into transgender issues, into hate crime, obsession, into net zero zealotry. Will we see change or will we see continuity . Is change too much to hope for . Business is normal is now over for the snp. The issues that drove mr yousaf from office still very much remain. This is a game of numbers now. Now the snp need a candidate. They need a first candidate. They need a first minister that can drive consensus in the Scottish Parliament. That means working with the greens. So back to square one with working with the very people that you had in government then kicked out of government. But the support there for the snp overall is not there for the snp overall is not there anymore. So it also means trying to appease scottish labour and the scottish conservatives. There has to be a conservatives. There has to be a consensus character takeover. It consensus character takeover. It cant be someone that stands up and says, as mr yousaf does, he wants to make scotland tory free. The days of the snp is to survive of that kind of rhetoric have to be over for their own future and, as wed expect, until the bitter end with humza yousaf, he talks about identity politics. He talks about how nobody who looked like him had ever been in power. He didnt mention glasgow , but he mentioned gaza. What do you think humza yussefs legacy will be . It was only in office, what, 31 short months and spectacularly , it ended in a car spectacularly, it ended in a car crash. How will he be remembered . 7. I 7 i cant 7 i cant take 7 i cant take credit for this. But humza, the brief is now the nickname thats doing the rounds onune nickname thats doing the rounds online and in the scottish press. And i believe that theres a lot of truth to that. He had a year to prove himself, to prove that he was different to his predecessors , different to his predecessors, and to find his own legacy. If youre asking me to find what the best things about him are, it is hard to find them as it is to hard find the worst things about them. Its been consistent mishandling of opportunities that have been presented to him. The overemphasis on international affairs, i think, is one that is going to go down to haunt him because its come at the expense of focusing on scottish priorities. Now that sounds like a cliche, but the nhs, of which he previously ran is in a dire state. And if you spin the wheel and point at a scottish policy, scottish devolved area, youre very likely going to find it in severe difficulty. Its not a legacy to be particularly proud of, im sorry to say. Okay, superb stuff. Thanks for joining us as ever. Its forjoining us as ever. Its a pleasure to have your company. And thats alastair stewart, columnist at the scotsman. Well, lets flip back now to our studio in westminster, and im joined by our political correspondents, Katherine Forster, catherine, is it just me or is everywhere in british politics at the moment . Utter chaos north of the border. Chaos Northern Ireland chaos. The chaos on the border between ireland and britain, the United Kingdom and chaos in wales. Are we defined by this new area of just total bedlam in politics . Domestically . It is quite incredible, isnt it . Weve all been talking for weeks about, you know, rumblings within the conservative party. Could they try after the local elections on thursday to take the Prime Minister out . Little the Prime Minister out . Little did we think that the Scottish National party, that the leader, the first minister, would be gone , theyd be searching around gone, theyd be searching around for another. You mentioned Northern Ireland. Of course. Weve now got the incredible situation of sir jeffrey donaldson, a you know, a giant of Northern Irish politics leader of the dup, former leader of the dup. I should say, being charged with rape. Another very serious allegations, along with his wife and over in wales , the his wife and over in wales, the very new welsh labour first minister, vaughan gething, theres all sorts of questions there. About £200,000 donation that he took from a firm tied to a man that had twice been convicted of environmental offences. Plaid cymru are calling for investigation. Welsh conservatives calling for an investigation. Even some welsh investigation. Even some welsh labour mps very , very unhappy. Labour mps very, very unhappy. So wherever you look across all four corners of the United Kingdom, there is , quite a kingdom, there is, quite a chaotic picture. And talking of which , we had and talking of which, we had a spectacular defection which has been lost. Rishi sunak is probably quite glad that bad news for the conservative party has been lost with the humza yousaf chaos, dan poulter , whos yousaf chaos, dan poulter, whos defected to the labour party from the conservative party, the mp for central suffolk and North Ipswich. He said over chaos within the nhs, keir starmer would be trying to parade him around today but thats got lost in the wash. But again, yet more trouble for rishi sunak. Yes rishi sunak had a really great week. I mean , i use that word i mean, i use that word advisedly, given that 20 points behind in the polls. But, you know, he had a few really good days. The welfare announcements, rwanda , the big, increase in rwanda, the big, increase in defence spending. And then on saturday night, this bombshell announcement that this conservative mp was going to cross the floor to labour. Now, of course, we had Christian Wakeford did that a couple of years ago. That was back in the time of Boris Johnson and partygate. More recently, we had lee anderson, former, you know, chair of the conservative party, go over to reform on the other side. So, you know, thats three rishi sunak in the middle trying to get his message out that they are getting on with the job. But no, not a good look. And i suspect that number 10 will be really very happy indeed that all this drama north of the border is pulling focus away from that. Do you think this tells us something . Ive been hearing something . Ive been hearing from a lot of gb news viewers, and it would have been unthinkable historically for a conservative to defect to the labour party. But are they labour party. But are they basically the same party now . Theres not a great deal of difference between them to, to go from red from blue to red. Actually, they have pretty much the same policies and more or less everything. Well, a lot of people have certainly thought that for a while. And thats one of the reasons why quite a lot of people are going over to reform, thinking that reform are offering something didnt at all, i would say is that i think in the last week or so, it has become ea