Scottish Greens warn SNP not to take budget support for granted

The Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie has warned First Minister John Swinney not to take his party's votes for granted to get the SNP budget through the Scottish Parliament.

Speaking at the party’s autumn conference in Greenock, Harvie said the Greens had a responsibility to engage with the process in good faith and honesty.

However, he said that John Swinney knew to his cost that the Greens are the only party to have ever brought down an SNP budget.

The comment is in reference to the 2009 budget which the Greens blocked over a row about a £33m home insulation programme.

Alex Salmond, who died earlier this month aged 69, was first minister at the time while John Swinney was finance secretary.

At Holyrood, the SNP are currently in power, but they are governing as a minority administration.

This means they must rely on the support of other parties to pass legislation.

The Greens were in a power-sharing agreement with the SNP until April, when the then-first minister, Humza Yousaf, kicked the junior party out of government.

Since then, the Scottish government has halted some policies supported by the Greens, including nature restoration funding and a pilot that scrapped peak rail fares.

During his keynote speech, Harvie called for the SNP to reverse their "broken promises".

He accused the Scottish government of making a "sharp U-turn" on climate policies since the Greens left government.

Harvie called for the re-instatement of the plan to roll out free school meals to all primary children and the reversing the cut to nature restoration fund, among other pledges.

The Scottish Greens co-leader also warned his MSPs "would not wave through" the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill.

The legislation was introduced after ministers announced - while the Greens were in government - they had abandoned a target of reducing emissions by 75% by 2030.

Harvie accused the Scottish government of "dithering" on climate change.

He said: "The first two Climate Change Acts were statements of high ambition. This third one will be an admission that, as Greens have long argued, Scotland is years behind where we should be.

"It is an admission that needs to be made; but making it demands an urgent acceleration of action here and now, not just promises of more plans to come.

"But what have we seen in the last six months from the now-minority Scottish government?

"Instead of accepting that missed targets demand accelerated action, they've chosen a sharp U-turn on much of the action that the Greens had been advancing."

Meanwhile, the party conference had to temporarily abandon plans to vote on the future of a National Care Service.

Members in Greenock argued with the party’s Standing Orders Committee over procedures.

The agenda for the rest of the day was binned and a new one will be drawn up for Sunday morning. The vote should take place then.

The party as a whole was expected to withdraw support for the care service - potentially scuppering a Scottish government flagship policy.

The Greens are meeting on the banks of the Clyde in Greenock and it’s here that they were expected to torpedo a flagship Scottish government policy.

Cast adrift by the SNP from government, they’re now free agents and are attempting to demonstrate they can still wield power.

Issues with the National Care Service (NCS) have been on their radar and it’s due to a perceived lack of local accountability that members were going to scupper those plans this afternoon through an emergency motion.

But in a chaotic afternoon session, one member raised concerns over procedure and the agenda for the rest of the day was binned by a majority member vote.

The emergency motion vote on NCS should now take place tomorrow - but I imagine there will be some mirth from ministers at the turn of events.

However, without Green support, the Scottish government really have no hope of passing the NCS but they insist their door remains open for talks.

The Greens are also trying to wield power when it comes to the budget with a threatening reminder that they’re the only party to have ever brought down an SNP budget.

Their spending demands would have to be met but many in the SNP are pleased to have been untethered from their former comrades and don’t relish Green fingers back on the tiller.