PATRICK Harvie and Lorna Slater are set to be the first Green ministers in the UK, the party has confirmed.
The Scottish Greens said they would nominate their two co-leaders for ministerial office if party members endorse a five-year joint government deal with the SNP on Saturday.
The Scottish Tories dubbed them an “anti-jobs duo” and accused Nicola Sturgeon of “handing extremists key positions in government”.
If the deal is agreed, the two pro-independence parties will have an overall majority at Holyrood, with the SNP having 64 MSPs out of 129 and the Greens seven.
The First Minister last week said the arrangement would make it democratically impossible for Boris Johnson to refuse a second independence referendum.
However the Prime Minister shows no sign of granting Indyref2, and the issue may well end up before the UK Supreme Court later in the parliament.
Mr Harvie has been a Glasgow list MSP since 2003, while Ms Slater was elected a Lothians MSP in May, but only after Green MSP Andy Wightman quit the party, pushing her up the regional list.
The Scottish Greens said the pair would “take on broad remits focussing on the key priorities” set out in the SNP-Green joint policy programme.
The party said one minister would be charged with “delivering bold plans to decarbonise transport, homes and buildings, as well as a new deal for tenants, while the other will focus on green skills, industries like energy, and restoring the natural environment”.
Full details regarding the ministerial portfolios will be confirmed by the Scottish Government next week if the draft deal is ratified by the two parties.
Ms Slater said: “The time has come for Scotland to step up efforts to decarbonise our economy and invest in a greener, independent future. The cooperation agreement we’ve negotiated would put Greens at the heart of decision making at this crucial time and if our members endorse it then I look forward to driving change in government.”
Mr Harvie added: “With Greens in government we would be able to deliver positive change like tackling Scotland’s emissions, protecting nature, advancing tenants’ rights. bringing forward overdue equalities legislation and delivering an independence referendum.
“I am proud of our vibrant party democracy and look forward to discussing and debating this deal with members on Saturday and if they back it, they can be assured that we’ll waste no time getting to work to deliver on this transformative agenda.”
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: “Nicola Sturgeon is handing extremists key positions in government. The more details that emerge, the worse this nationalist coalition of chaos looks for hardworking families and workers across Scotland.
“MSPs who don’t believe in economic growth, who actively want to limit Scotland’s economy, are apparently going to be government ministers.
“Neither Patrick Harvie or Lorna Slater should be anywhere near key financial decisions that will impact jobs and businesses.
“Their growing influence is a danger to our oil and gas industry and the 100,000 jobs it supports. The Greens seek to undermine the future of the North Sea sector at every turn, and Nicola Sturgeon is giving them a bigger platform to do that.
“It’s a real worry that an anti-jobs duo may have a regular seat at the Cabinet table, while businesses are shut out from the decision-making process.”
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