The SNP's Holyrood pact with the Scottish Greens will remain in place until 2026, according to the party's former leader at Westminster.
Appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this afternoon Ian Blackford defended the Bute House Agreement behind the SNP-Green joint government deal.
A series of figures in the SNP have raised concerns about the arrangement with some calling for party members to have a vote on whether the pact should continue.
In an article in the Herald on Sunday today former rural affairs secretary Fergus Ewing said the Greens "basically would destroy our economy" and the deal could down the SNP and the independence cause. He repeated his previous calls for the pact to end.
But Mr Blackford disagreed.
He told a festival audience: "The Bute House Agreement was the right thing to do, it remains the right thing to do, and it will remain in place over the lifetime of this parliament."
The MP was speaking at For The Many Live with broadcaster Iain Dale and former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith at Pleasance EICC.
Asked about Alba's idea of Yes parties fighting elections on a single 'Scotland United' ticket, Mr Blackford dismissed it as "for the birds".
He said: "Let's just remember that we've had the council elections not that long ago in Scotland, 1100 seats up for grabs. The Alba party won zero.
"So the idea that there is scope for an electoral alliance where our cause will be assisted by making an alignment with other parties I'm afraid is for the birds."
Asked if he would like to see Alex Salmond back in the SNP, Mr Blackford was blunt.
He said: "Alex Salmond is not in the SNP. He's in another party. There is no pathway for Alex Salmond to return."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel