The Scottish government has survived a vote of no confidence, preventing a collapse of the Scottish National party administration at Holyrood.
Seventy MSPs on Wednesday voted against the motion brought by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, with 58 voting in favour.
“Our country is crying out for change,” said Sarwar, comparing the SNP to the Conservative UK government and characterising them both as “chaotic” and “unleadable”.
“The people want to move on from this dysfunctional and incompetent SNP government — that’s why we need an election, so the people can decide,” he added.
The government had been expected to win the vote because the Scottish Greens, whose defenestration last week led to a political crisis that caused Humza Yousaf to resign as first minister on Monday, had indicated they would vote with the nationalist party.
Yousaf ended the power-sharing agreement with the Greens as the SNP sought to shift away from the more radical progressive policy agenda of its former coalition partners.
When the Scottish Conservatives brought a no-confidence motion in the first minister, the Greens refused to back him. That motion was withdrawn after Yousaf’s resignation.
The first minister, who has taken responsibility for the manner in which he ended the power-sharing deal, will remain in post until his successor as leader of the SNP is selected.
Two candidates, John Swinney and Kate Forbes, are regarded as most likely to announce their intention to stand ahead of Monday’s deadline.
The two held informal talks on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for Forbes quoted by the Press Association on Wednesday.
The party hierarchy would prefer to avoid a repeat of last year’s brutal leadership contest when Yousaf narrowly defeated Forbes for the top job.
New polling from Ipsos, carried out after Yousaf’s resignation, found Forbes has a six-point lead over Swinney when the public was asked who from a list of potential SNP candidates would make the best first minister. But those who voted SNP at the last Holyrood election are more likely to prefer Swinney.
Both potential candidates would have to work with other parties to become first minister and deliver new legislation, given parliamentary arithmetic: the SNP has 63 seats and the opposition has 65.
Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said the SNP minority government could work but the nationalist party would need to reach out across parliament to form a majority, “so it will need to remain progressive”.
Harvie said this would include on policies including accelerating emissions reductions, a commitment to equality and redistribution, which he said would “be all the more important if an incoming UK government carries out its threat to stick to Tory fiscal rules, meaning more austerity”.
