Ash Regan, former SNP MSP, writes to Yousaf with items needed to secure her vote and says SNP has ‘lost its focus’ over the years

Good morning. A week today many of the results from the local elections will be in, the Conservatives are expected to be doing very badly and Rishi Sunak’s leadership will be on the line. Many Tory think Sunak could be facing a no confidence vote within days.

And so it must be some relief in Downing Street that there is another political leader in the UK in even more trouble than Sunak. Humza Yousaf, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, is facing an actual no confidence vote next week, not just a hypothetical one, and, as Severin Carrell explains in our overnight story, there is a real chance he could be out of his job within days.

I have written to the first minister today with a number of issues that I’ve raised with him on progress made towards independence, on how he will defend the rights of women and children and a return to competent governance.

My vote will depend on really what Humza comes back with in response to my letter.

Unfortunately it has lost its focus over the last few years, it has gone down pursuing some policies that are not popular with the public, many of those were policies that really stemmed from the coalition agreement with the Green party.

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Chris Philp gets in a muddle over neighbouring African countries when questioned on BBC show

The policing minister, Chris Philp, appeared to confuse the countries of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on BBC Question Time.

Responding to an audience member’s question during the BBC One programme, the MP for Croydon South seemed to ask whether “Rwanda is a different country to Congo?”.

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Exclusive: Action by organisation supporting migrants argues new rules are discriminatory

An organisation that supports migrant workers has launched a legal challenge against the government’s new policy to bar care workers from bringing children and partners to the UK, warning that it is “tearing families apart”.

According to Migrants at Work, care workers have to choose between family life with their children and partners or getting a job as a health or social carer in the UK – they can no longer do both.

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Instead of buy-one-get-one-free offers, everyday life now involves carefully comparing prices and feeling increasingly powerless

Under capitalism, prices are supposed to be the centre of everything. They are the key agreement between buyer and seller. They are the one clear and reliable piece of information, on which the whole often opaque and unstable system depends.

So it struck me as strange when some of my local London shops stopped displaying the prices of some goods a couple of years ago. It started with upmarket fishmongers, and I wondered whether this was because wealthy customers didn’t need to count their pennies. But then the practice spread to corner shops and greengrocers, with a wider clientele, and to everyday purchases such as fruit and vegetables. There was a cost of living crisis going on, the worst in Britain for 40 years, but parts of Hackney seemed to be in denial.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

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Those vying for job say it will put region on more equal footing with areas such as West Midlands and Greater Manchester

The Conservatives are “not taking accountability” for their part in leaving regions such as the east Midlands to suffer with poor infrastructure, growing inequalities and a skills gap, Labour’s candidate for the region’s first mayor said.

Claire Ward, the former MP for Watford, said there was not enough to keep young people in the east Midlands and that people had “lost hope”.

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Gideon Falter was in running to be adviser but government’s antisemitism tsar warned against appointment

• Who are CAA, the group headed by campaigner in Met police antisemitism row?

The Home Office considered appointing campaigner against antisemitism Gideon Falter as an adviser to its counter extremism unit but was warned against the appointment by the government’s antisemitism tsar.

The Guardian understands there were strong objections to Falter being offered the part-time civil service role advising the Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) in 2022 and that John Mann told the then home secretary Suella Braverman he would quit if Falter was offered the post.

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Enrico La Rocca helped expose profound failures but less than a year later was dismissed by the DWP – and then later rehired

• Sunak under pressure to grant carers amnesty

Almost exactly five years ago, Enrico La Rocca was hailed by MPs as a hero, a whistleblower whose tenacity had helped expose profound failures at the heart of the government’s vast benefits agency, resulting in tens of thousands of vulnerable unpaid carers being unfairly fined and prosecuted.

Without La Rocca – who was not named at the time – serious problems with carer’s allowance overpayments may never have come to light, the Commons work and pensions select committee concluded: without him the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would never have been persuaded of the “urgent need to act”.

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Concern grows over legality of government’s approach as new figures show more than 150,000 carers facing huge penalties

• A hero – then sacked. The carer’s allowance whistleblower

New figures show more than 150,000 unpaid carers are now facing huge fines for minor rule breaches, as MPs, charities and campaigners demanded an immediate amnesty.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, joined calls to write off the vast debts incurred by tens of thousands of people who care for sick, disabled and elderly relatives after experts raised concerns about the legality of the government’s approach.

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Humza Yousaf’s position as first minister is in danger, but the problems predate his leadership

A year ago, Scotland’s newly elected first minister, Humza Yousaf , said that the Scottish National party’s 2021 pact with the Scottish Greens – giving him a majority in the Holyrood parliament – was “worth its weight in gold”. As recently as Tuesday, Mr Yousaf was publicly buffing his treasure, insisting that he hoped the deal would continue . Less than 48 hours later, however, he decided it was time to sell, scrapping the pact and pledging instead to lead a minority SNP government for the remaining two years of this Scottish parliament. Shortly afterwards, the furious Greens vowed to back next week’s Conservative motion of no confidence against the man who had “betrayed” them.

The split is no surprise. Last week, the Scottish government scrapped its pledge of a 75% cut in carbon emissions by 2030, and its legally binding annual reduction targets. It did so after the UK Climate Change Committee declared the target “no longer credible” because not enough groundwork had been done. The Scottish Greens reacted with anger; an emergency meeting was planned for May to decide whether to continue in government. Meanwhile, some SNP backbenchers made clear that they had had enough too. On Thursday, anxious to show decisive leadership, Mr Yousaf got in first, dumping the deal.

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