Labour’s no-confidence motion against the Scottish Government will be voted on this Wednesday, Holyrood officials have confirmed.
If passed, it would require all government ministers – including the First Minister – to immediately resign.
In that case, Holyrood would need to elect a new FM within 28 days or an election would be held.
The Scottish Tories and Liberal Democrats have announced their support for the motion but the Greens have signalled they would not back it, meaning it is likely to fail.
It comes just an hour after the Conservatives said they would not go ahead with their motion of no-confidence in Yousaf this week.
Tory leader Douglas Ross said his party had already achieved its aim of ousting Yousaf, declaring “job done”.
Sarwar said he wanted to use the motion to highlight the need for a Holyrood election following the turmoil in the SNP.
He said the “genie was out of the bottle” for the SNP, adding: “I think this is a dysfunctional, chaotic, divided political party.”
In a meeting of Holyrood’s parliamentary bureau on Tuesday, the Labour motion against the Government was confirmed for Wednesday afternoon.
Arguing the Government was “incompetent” and could not be saved by a new leader, Sarwar said: “We will not be withdrawing the motion.
“I think the Greens and the SNP obviously have already made it clear they would not support such a motion but the principle of that motion still stands.
“I have no confidence in this SNP Government.”
He said pressing on with the motion of no confidence despite it being unlikely to pass parliament was a “point of principle”.
Sarwar also said the decision on Scotland’s new political leader should be put to the public.
He said: “We also want to highlight the democratic deficit as they themselves described it when they were talking about Westminster and the Conservatives.
Sarwar said he was “desperate” for a Scottish election alongside a Westminster one, which will be held later this year, adding his party was “ready for elections”.
Getty ImagesGreens MSP Gillian Mackay has said the confidence vote was a tool to “embarrass” Yousaf further, and accused Labour of “parliamentary game-playing”.
She said: “Like the withdrawn Tory motion, the Labour one has clearly been overtaken by events. Pursuing it would achieve nothing, and would simply mean more parliamentary game-playing.
“Labour MSPs have spent the last few days saying the government needs to get back to running the country, so why do they want to waste the valuable time of the Scottish Parliament, staff and MSPs by carrying on with this charade when it has no chance of passing?”
Mackay added: “We bear no personal animosity to the First Minister or the SNP, and, as Scottish Greens, are already getting back to business.”
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