Senior members of the Scottish Greens are at war over claims one of their most senior MSPs shared confidential details of the party’s finances on his Instagram page.
In a post at the end of October, Ross Greer wrote that the party have "£180k in the bank.”
But one source told The Herald on Sunday that information should not have been shared on social media.
The party hit back and said the figure was the same as one mentioned in their accounts filed with the Electoral Commission, which are publicly available.
READ MORE: Heat pumps: The realities of having a heat pump installed at home
The comment from the MSP, who is his party’s finance spokesman in Holyrood, came in response to a Daily Express article with the headline, “Spindly Ross Greer models £20 anti-monarchy T-shirts for cash-strapped Scottish Greens.”
Mr Greer shared the headline on an Instagram story on his profile, writing “as compliments go, ‘spindly’ is probably as back-handed as they get,” adding “(and we've got £180k in the bank)”
Sources with knowledge of the Green’s finances say a paper shared and discussed at a meeting of the party's executive on October 25 — chaired by Mr Greer — showed they had current year earnings of £16,837.18, general reserves of £94,041.70 and retained earnings of £68,614.67.
That gave them total capital and reserves of £179,493.55.
Our source said the figures in the paper were for internal party use only and were clearly marked as confidential.
They described the decision to share the document on social media as “a flagrant breach of the party's confidence” to do “nothing more than combat a petty feud with a newspaper.”
A source said: "Ross Greer has long been keen to follow the SNP politically, but now it seems he is walking in their footsteps with his lax approach to party finances. Quite simply, this is an embarrassment.
"It speaks volumes to the current managerial grip on the Scottish Greens that a very senior member of the party has no fear in disclosing confidential financial information to the public.
“The loyal core at the heart of every Scottish Green decision meant there was never any chance of Ross facing action.
"If this was any other Scottish Greens member, Ross Greer would be urging them to stand down with immediate effect to limit further damage to the party.
“Mr Greer should now heed this advice, own up to this grievous leak of party accounts, and step down for the good of everyone involved."
READ MORE: 'Entirely unrealistic': MSPs slam costs of Lorna Slater's latest plan
A spokesperson for the Greens rubbished the criticism. They pointed out that the Daily Express article noted that in the most recent set of accounts filed with the Electoral Commission, the party had £176,970 in the bank at the end of 2022.
They said this is what Mr Greer’s Instagram referred to.
“There's nothing confidential about the £180k figure, so there isn't a story here to comment on,” the spokesperson said.
There have been notable tensions in the Scottish Greens in recent months.
Last week, Robin Harper, the party’s former leader in Holyrood urged members to oust current co-convenor Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater.
“We have a ruling cabal,” he told Holyrood magazine. “About half of the MSPs form it. They don’t listen – they don’t want to listen – to reason, to the rest of the party, where there are differences of opinion.
“They have a real grip on the party. There are many, many party members who haven’t realised actually how far they have drifted towards being in total control.
“There needs to be an upwelling amongst members to replace the present leadership.”
Despite the splits, the Greens are set to increase their numbers at the next Holyrood election, with a recent Ipsos poll suggesting they would take 10 seats, up from the seven they currently hold.
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