SCOTLAND'S third sector has been "conditioned" and stripped of the ambition it showed in the early years of devolution, one of the longest-serving MSPs has said.

Former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont said charities and other groups "are reminded where their funding comes from" and will only ask ministers for what they think they will get.

It came as she insisted Holyrood has lost its energy over the last 20 years, with most political debates now a "proxy" for constitutional battles over independence.

Ms Lamont, who is one of only 18 MSPs to have sat continuously in the Scottish Parliament since the beginning, also called for a more mature approach to politics, and suggested the SNP should bring in ministers from the Greens to help run the Government.

Speaking to The Herald to mark two decades since the first Holyrood elections, she said: “I personally think the third sector, in particular, has been very conditioned in a way that they weren’t then.

“I think there’s a lot of people, who are all really good people – their ambition is less.

“Because they don’t want to fall out, so actually they ask for what they think they’ll get.

“I think what's happening now [is] worthy of an investigation by somebody, somewhere, if people are willing to speak about it.

“Third sector organisations are reminded where their funding comes from, and so they don’t really push as hard as they might have done in the past.

“And actually also, people have accepted that Government backbenchers are not going to rebel. So they don’t even put them under pressure.”

She added: “Obviously the SNP are in power. It may have happened anyway.”

The Glasgow MSP said there was an attitude among charities and other third sector organisations of "if I go out on a limb here, and say something really difficult, there will be consequences in terms of my funding. So I will not be able to do that again."

In contrast, she said, in the early days of devolution there was "loads of pressure externally" from groups and individuals bursting with ideas.

Elsewhere, Ms Lamont said Holyrood has lost some of the untidy, creative energy of its early days, and lacked "big ideas".

She said most debates are now a “proxy” for constitutional wrangling, “so you don’t really have to do the heavy thinking around a policy area because you only have to think, ‘Who is advocating it?’ And then why you don’t agree with it.”

She said: “I always thought there was a slight naivety about this idea that if you put people in a circle and say it’s a more [proportionately representative] parliament, they're somehow more likely to agree with each other.

"I don’t think so. I think it’s actually in some ways more tribal. But it’s not tribal around policy — it’s tribal around what it’s a proxy for.”

She called for a more "mature" approach, and suggested the SNP could even invite Green MSPs, who helped to vote through the Budget earlier this year, to become ministers.

She said: “If they stuck somebody like Andy Wightman in to do land reform, into their Cabinet, that would be quite a good trade-off against other things that the Greens might not be able to do.”

Ms Lamont said it was "astonishing" that almost half the SNP group in Holyrood are ministers, and argued the balance between the executive and parliament has changed.

Anna Fowlie, chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, said: “There will always be sensitivities around organisations challenging funders, particularly when the funder is government, regardless of who is in power.

"To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, SCVO is publishing a book in June 2019 which illustrates many of the fabulous examples where the voluntary sector has successfully campaigned to change legislation or policy over the last 20 years.

"It shows that activism and challenge is still very much alive and kicking, and I know the passion that is fundamental to our sector across a whole range of big societal issues will continue to drive change and challenge the status quo.”