THE rancour between Scotland’s governing parties has been aired on TV by a Green MSP launching a highly personal attack on a former SNP minister.

Ross Greer mocked Fergus Ewing on the BBC Sunday Show as politically irrelevant and scurrilously joked he might have a drink problem.

It followed Mr Ewing, a former SNP cabinet secretary, attacking the Scottish Greens as “wine bar revolutionaries” at FMQs on Thursday.

Mr Ewing, who backs North Sea oil and gas drilling, said the Green policy of rejecting new fields was “economic masochism” and lead to mass job losses.

The Inverness East MSP has also been highly critical in recent months of the deposit return recycling scheme led by Green minister Lorna Slater.

Its launch was this week delayed from mid-August to March next year, with Ms Slater blaming Westminster for failing to sign it off in good time.

However the scheme was also rewritten after complaints from business.

The Greens and SNP entered into joint government in autumn 2021 when then FM Nicola Sturgeon struck the Bute House Agreement with the smaller pro-independence party.

However many SNP MSPs have come to resent the deal, believing it gives disproportionate influence to the Greens, and fear many of the party’s policies are unpopular with voters.

Appearing on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, Mr Greer, the Green MSP for West Scotland, was asked what he had to say to Mr Ewing about his “wine bar revolutionaries” crack.

Mr Greer replied: “To be fair to Fergus, I think he knows a lot more about wine bars that I do, but the man’s so far on the backbenches you would need a flashlight to find him.”

He went on: “Ninety-five percent of SNP members voted for the Bute House Agreement. 

“And we can see from public polling that the Scottish Greens are more popular than we were two years ago when we entered government. 

“That's because we're actually delivering things people want and need. 

“It's the Greens in government who delivered a rent freeze keeping tenants in their homes over the winter.

“We've delivered an eviction ban that we've extended across the summer into this year as well. 

“We’ve delivered under-22 free bus travel. We're now about to remove peak time rail fares.

“It's Greens in government who are delivering what people really need right now to help them through the cost of living crisis and to take action on the climate emergency, which we all recognise needs to be our top priority.”