Scottish Greens threaten early election over SNP Budget

She said past commitments made to the party by the Scottish Government had not been kept, making it hard to agree to any promises made by John Swinney’s administration.

The Lothian region MSP also confirmed she would be standing for re-election as co-convenor and would be “lead the party into the next Holyrood election".

Scottish Green rules mean the co-convenors needed to be reelected by members every two years, with the next vote due in 2025.

Patrick Harvie has yet to confirm if he will stand again, only saying he will “make a decision nearer the time”.

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MSPs, councillors and activists are gathering in Greenock for the party’s annual conference. It looks set to be dominated by the Bute House Agreement, the coalition deal between the SNP and the Greens, scrapped by the then first minister Humza Yousaf in April.

His decision to fire Ms Slater and Mr Harvie — which ultimately led to the end of his own time in office — came as Green members were voting on the partnership deal.

Saturday will see the party hold a “review” of their time in government in a behind-closed-doors session.

There is a split in the party between those who supported the agreement and those who believed Ms Slater and Mr Harvie compromised too much.

Patrick Harvie will speak at the Scottish Greens conference (Image: Colin Mearns/NQ)

In the months since the agreement came to an end, John Swinney, the new SNP First Minister, has walked back on many of the commitments made in the Bute House Agreement.

There have been cuts to active travel and nature restoration budgets, and a watering down of some commitment on social policies, including the watertight ban on LGBTQ+ conversion practices.

As the leader of a minority administration, to get his budget passed, Mr Swinney needs the support of at least two opposition MSPs or for at least three opposition MSPs to abstain.

The Greens have backed every SNP budget since 2016, but that now looks increasingly unlikely.

If Mr Swinney is unable to get his budget passed that could ultimately lead to an early election.

Ms Slater told The Herald her party was ready for that eventuality.

“The Scottish Greens are polling really well at the moment. The SNP are in a difficult position, having collapsed the Bute House Agreement rather suddenly.

“They now find themselves as a minority government with a challenging budget to pass, and if they are hoping for Green votes to help pass that budget, they are going to need to sit across the table from us and put back a lot of the things that we were working on together in the Bute House Agreement.”

Asked if she was willing to bring down the government, she replied, “absolutely."

Ms Slater added: “We cannot support a budget that doesn't have in it that commitment to the things that are most important to us, to build a fairer and greener Scotland, it has to be targeting poverty realistically, and it has to be targeting the climate crisis.

“You can't keep putting in money for road building and keep allowing tax breaks for massive landowners and polluters and so you haven't got enough money for climate, and you haven't got enough money to tackle poverty. Of course, we couldn't tolerate those things.”

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“The kind of things that we'll be asking for are not any sort of secret,” she added. “They're things like putting back the nature restoration funding, active travel funding, making sure that we can maintain the public sector pay settlement, the Scottish Child Payment, all the things that we worked on together when we were in government.

“We will be looking for assurance not only that those will continue to be part of the budget, but the concern we've got is, can we trust the SNP?

“Because last year, we supported their budget, and halfway through the year, when they found themselves in difficulty, it seemed like the Green stuff was the first to go, cutting the promise for free travel for asylum seekers, stopping the roll out of school meals for primary school children.”

Lorna Slater speaks out on budget support (Image: Colin Mearns/NQ)

The Greens have also called for a number of taxes targeting the wealthy, including one on "mansions".

That would see an extra land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT) band of 15%, levied on home sales worth £1 million or more.

It is unlikely that the Scottish Government will agree to either of those.

Meanwhile, party members have also tabled a motion at conference that would require any budget agreement with the SNP to include "real-terms increases in council funding" as a red line.

Shona Robison is due to set out her draft spending and tax plans on December 4. Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee has already had preliminary talks with the other parties.

Failing to get a Budget Bill passed does not automatically bring down the government, but it could lead to a vote of no confidence which, if successful, could mean the First Minister resigning. 

If MSPs cannot agree on a replacement within 28 days, that could then trigger an extraordinary general election.

What makes the prospect of an early election difficult — though not impossible — is that MSPs also need to pass a rates resolution, confirming the rates and bands of Scottish income tax, by the end of March.

Even if there is an early election, there would still need to be another vote in May 2026, as scheduled.

The Scottish Government was approached for comment.