Greens deal with SNP could end if new leader rejects progressive policies
The Guardian The Scottish Greens have issued a stark warning to the next leader of the Scottish National party that a sincere commitment to progressive values cannot be an optional extra.
With the SNP announcing on Monday who will replace Nicola Sturgeon as party leader and first minister after her shock resignation last month, the Scottish Green leadership gave their most definitive indication yet that the partnership deal between the two parties would be over if Kate Forbes is elected.
The Scottish Green co-leaders, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, told their partys spring conference that they had so much more to deliver in government with the SNP, but would not continue the partnership at any cost with a first minister who does not share their progressive commitments.
The Bute House agreement that brought the Greens into government after the 2021 Holyrood elections is critical to lending the SNP the parliamentary majority it needs at Holyrood to pass its budgets.
The SNP will announce its new leader on Monday afternoon after a turbulent contest that has seen deep policy divisions emerge between candidates, unprecedented personal attacks and the resignation of the partys chief executive and Sturgeons husband, Peter Murrell, following damaging revelations that the media had been fed false information about membership figures.
