One consolation for the SNP: YouGov poll says their vote share has increased in spite of the crisis

Amidst all of yesterday's mayhem, it shouldn't be overlooked that YouGov published a full-scale Scottish poll, which was conducted before Yousaf resigned but only just before, so it takes into account the impact of the pre-resignation crisis but not the impact of the resignation itself.  Amazingly, it shows the SNP slightly on the up.  That's probably just a reversion to the mean after a poor previous poll, but nevertheless even just holding steady should be regarded as a major relief.

Scottish voting intentions for the next UK general election:

Labour 34% (+1)

SNP 33% (+2)

Conservatives 14% (-)

Liberal Democrats 8% (+1)

Reform UK 5% (-2)

Greens 4% (-1)

Scottish Parliament constituency vote:

SNP 36% (+2)

Labour 32% (-)

Conservatives 16% (+1)

Liberal Democrats 9% (-)

Greens 3% (-1)

Scottish Parliament regional list vote:

SNP 31% (+2)

Labour 28% (-1)

Conservatives 17% (+1)

Greens 8% (-1)

Liberal Democrats 8% (-)

Alba 3% (-)

Reform UK 3% (-2)

Before anyone makes a smart-alec comment about how the SNP should have stuck with Yousaf because clearly it was all going swimmingly, the fact that Yousaf's approval rating has gone through the floor leaves no room for doubt that the SNP vote has held up in spite of him and not because of him.  Actually, Alba-bashers had better thank their lucky stars that Yousaf is departing, because if he'd stayed it would have deprived them of one of their most cherished attack lines.  His rating is now very similar to that recorded by Alex Salmond over the last four years or so.

Net approval ratings of leading politicians:

Stephen Flynn (SNP): -9

Anas Sarwar (Labour): -9

John Swinney (SNP): -15

Alex Cole-Hamilton (Liberal Democrats): -16

Nicola Sturgeon (SNP): -18

Ash Regan (Alba): -25

Patrick Harvie (Greens): -27

Lorna Slater (Greens): -32

Douglas Ross (Conservatives): -34

Humza Yousaf (SNP): -35

Net approval ratings for how party leaders are doing their jobs:

Anas Sarwar (Labour): +4

Douglas Ross (Conservatives): -27

Patrick Harvie / Lorna Slater (Greens): -29

Humza Yousaf (SNP): -47

Slightly annoying that YouGov asked about John Swinney but not about Kate Forbes, although in fairness they wouldn't have had a crystal ball handy.  On past form I suspect Forbes would have been top of the pile.

I doubt if Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater will be too worried about their own poor personal ratings, because they're only trying to appeal to a specific section of the electorate, rather than to "Middle Scotland".  But what will disappoint them is that there's no sign of a wave of sympathy for the Greens in the headline voting intention numbers.

The public as a whole think by a margin of 37% to 27% that the SNP were right to end the coalition with the Greens, but the SNP's own supporters take the opposite view by 32% to 25%.  You can kind of sense the confusion of SNP voters on that question - they used to be massively in favour of the coalition, probably because the SNP leadership kept telling them how wonderful it was, but now the SNP leadership has done a sudden U-turn, they don't know what to think anymore.