He arrived at Bute House for a press conference at 12:00.

Yousaf had been trying to secure support to lead a minority government after two confidence votes were tabled against him and the SNP government.

He had previously written to opposition parties seeking common ground.

The Scottish first minister, Mr Yousaf, ended the power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens due to criticism over the SNP's decision to scrap 2030 climate targets and gender policies.

The Greens accused Mr Yousaf of betraying future generations and were set to vote on whether to continue in power with the SNP. With 63 MSPs in the 129-seat parliament, the SNP relies on the support of the seven Green MSPs and one Alba party MSP to remain in power.

Mr Yousaf has reportedly refused to make a deal with Alba, a pro-independence party.

The text discusses the potential outcome of a no-confidence vote against Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's deputy, John Swinney.

If Alba Party leader Alex Salmond's support resulted in a 64:64 tied vote, the presiding officer would maintain the status quo.

However, a loss for Swinney would put immense pressure on him to resign.

In the event of a government vote loss, Scottish MSPs would have 28 days to elect a new first minister or trigger an automatic Scottish Parliament election.

Scottish Labour has stated that the no-confidence motion against the Scottish government would remain even if Swinney resigns.