Robin Harper: Cocky and careless Scottish Greens need wake up call

The 82-year-old - who served as a Lothians MSP between 1999 and 2011 - predicted the SNP’s ruling coalition with the Greens will end in electoral disaster for both political parties.

“The SNP are already distancing themselves from the Greens, it is an alliance which will see both parties lose votes, and it seems highly likely it will not last. That will be a good thing and I believe it is really important we get a Labour government now at Westminster and Holyrood," he said in an interview with the Sunday Mail.

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“The Green party needs a wake up call, they have been careless and cocky, they are not listening to people and bringing them along. Politics includes the art of listening and if you don’t listen to both your supporters and your critics you will be found out and that is what has happened for both them and the SNP.”

Under Mr Harper’s co-convenorship, the Greens won seven seats in the Scottish parliament in 2003, before he relinquished the post to Patrick Harvie in 2008. 

They won eight seats at the last Scottish election in 2021 and went on to form a governing pact with the SNP, with Mr Harvie and Lorna Slater taking up ministerial jobs.

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, centre, with Scottish Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater as they announce the Bute House Agreement in August 2021. Photo PA.

But in an attack on both former colleagues, Mr Harper added: “Leadership should be inspirational, it should have dignity and it should be rooted in plain common sense.

The leadership that Patrick and Lorna has provided has been arrogant and abrasive and it has repelled those who want politicians to listen and respond to other people’s ideas and feelings," he said.

“They are thinking aren’t we great, we have got our ministerial jobs, we will go down in history - I think they will, but not in the way they would like. The SNP is also descending into total chaos and it is highly likely that they are going to want to get rid of the Greens and get back to doing things their own way.”

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The Greens have been champions of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s gender reforms which are on hold after the UK Government blocked them over fears they would compromise women’s rights. The party has also come in for criticism over Ms Slater’s failed attempts to introduce a deposit return recycling scheme for glass and plastic bottles.

She survived a no confidence vote in Holyrood in June when the SNP whipped its MSPs to support her. However, long serving SNP MSP broke the party whip and failed to back her. He faces disciplinary action when the Scottish Parliament returns from recess in September.

Mr Harvie meanwhile has sparked anger over his plans to penalise homeowners with gas boilers under housing proposals to replace domestic fossil fuel energy devices with heat pumps.

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Mr Harper added: “We have all these civil servants, advisors, experts that could help create good legislation, but instead they have blundered in and made a complete mess of things. They clearly didn’t take the time to make sure that the deposit return scheme could be done properly and that they could create a piece of legislation that would stand up to scrutiny and be feasible.

“On the gender issue we have created this completely toxic environment where people can’t speak to each other anymore. What have we become when someone needs a police guard just to express a point of view. On heating for homes the Green policy has again been a complete disaster - everyone I have spoken to is a mixture of sad or furious.

“People just don’t have the money to go out and spend £15,000 on a new heat pump that will not be as effective as what they had before. We have even seen someone who makes heat pumps saying that they won’t work in Scotland.

"So far as I can see there was no research in terms of looking at all the possible options and finding something that will work and help the poorest people in society. I have spoken to doctors who say badly insulated damp properties are killing people so that is where we should focus first, but instead all I have heard is that everyone will be forced to spend £15,000 for something that probably will not be very good.”

In his resignation letter to Mr Harvie, Mr Harper said the Greens had “lost the plot” on independence and trans rights. He is part of Our Scottish Future, a pro-Union think tank set up by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

A Scottish Greens spokesman has thanked Mr Harper for being a tireless advocate for the environment.

He said: “Our party has always been committed to social and environmental justice as well as to independence. Independence and human rights, including the rights of trans people, are at the core of our vision.”