THE LEADERSHIPS of the SNP and Scottish Greens have reportedly agreed a power-sharing deal - paving the way for Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater’s party to hold ministerial roles.
The deal is still subject to agreement by members of the Scottish Greens who will vote on the arrangement on August 28, while Nicola Sturgeon’s Cabinet were considering the terms this morning.
An announcement could be made this afternoon on the arrangement.
Under the agreement, it is thought two Greens MSPs could be named junior ministers in the Scottish Government.
After May’s Holyrood election, the SNP was one seat short of an overall majority – but with the Greens’ eight MSPs, the Scottish Government would have 72 seats in the Holyrood chamber and a majority.
READ MORE: Opposition savage SNP-Green joint government deal ahead of announcement
Reports suggest that the Greens are happy to sign up to the majority of the Scottish Government’s policies but the agreement allows them to opt out of areas they disagree on.
The set-up has not been seen in the UK before but is based on the arrangement Greens have with Jacinda Ardern’s New Zealand government.
An email sent to members of the Scottish Greens earlier this month said a New Zealand model, which has seen Green Party MPs in that country take on ministerial portfolios while not being in an official coalition, is being considered by civil servants and Government lawyers.
With one more seat than it won in 2016, the SNP can no longer be outvoted by the 64 MSPs of all opposition parties combined, removing the threat of votes of confidence in ministers and repeals of SNP legislation that the party faced in the last parliament.
The First Minister has previously said a formal deal with the Greens was “potentially groundbreaking”.
The Scottish Government will see the deal with the Greens as a boost to their environmental credentials ahead of Glasgow hosting the COP26 global climate conference in November.
On Sunday, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said the two parties had been “trying to finish off those last bits of discussion”.
Asked about the widely mooted co-operation deal, Mr Harvie resisted going into any details but told the BBC: “Everybody is very keen to know the outcome, I don’t think you have very long to wait.
“If we do agree something with the SNP it won’t be put into practice until our party members have had a vote … we’re trying to finish off those last bits of discussion.
“I hope very soon we’ll be able to publish something.”
But the Scottish Tories said Green “extremists” didn’t belong anywhere near power and the SNP had “lost the plot” if they thought businesses and workers would welcome the move.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: "Scotland will suffer from this nationalist coalition of chaos.
"The SNP-Green government will be anti-jobs, anti-business, anti-families, anti-drivers, anti-oil and gas. Nicola Sturgeon failed to win a majority, so she needs a hand to ramp up the division and push for indyref2."
Scottish Labour said the Greens would end up as SNP “lackeys”, with the country being run by “a tiny minority of political obsessives”.
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