SNP ministers would face questions from their voters if they axed all spending on independence to do a budget deal with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, according to the Scottish Greens.

Ross Greer, the party's finance spokesman, spoke out as the Lib Dems will today meet for final talks with the government before finance secretary Shona Robison sets out her tax and spending plans in Holyrood tomorrow.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Lib Dem leader, has made it a condition for his party's support that 'not a penny' is spent on independence.

"When the Liberal Democrats raised the prospect that the Scottish Government would have to cut all spending and activity on independence in exchange for their support, we became concerned that the government didn't rule that out immediately," Mr Greer told The Herald.

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"For the Scottish Greens this is a very simple argument of democracy. In 2021 more people voted for pro independence parties to advance the cause of independence than for anti independence parties.

"I think it would be extremely hard for the SNP to explain to pro independence voters why their pro independence government is no longer working towards independence."

The SNP govern as a minority administration and need one party to either abstain or support its plans for Holyrood to pass them. MSPs will vote on the budget in February.

The Scottish Greens voted against the SNP's budget in 2009 in a row over funding for home insulation but have voted for each one since 2016.

But the ending of the governing pact, the Bute House Agreement, by former First Minister Humza Yousaf in April and the sacking of the Scottish Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater as junior ministers led to considerable tensions between the two pro-independence parties.

The Bute House Agreement was signed in August 2021 and ended this April (Image: JEFF J MITCHELL) First Minister John Swinney said on Monday improving Scotland’s NHS will be a top priority in the budget.

In an interview with the Herald on Sunday, Mr Alex Cole-Hamilton said there were "areas of great communality" between his party and the SNP in terms of their priorities to tackle poverty and provide greater support for carers.

Along with growing the economy, he has also put improving the NHS and cutting treatment waiting times  focus of his party's budget demands in talks.

But the Lib Dem leader has said his party could not back a budget if it allocated any resources to independence - or used parliamentary time to promote independence.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton (Image: PA) "We think it is a genuinely good thing that the Liberal Democrats are engaged in these discussions. The Greens have for years called for other parties to take this seriously....But independence is an important issue in Scottish politics," said Mr Greer.

"It is far from being the only important issue. The amount of money actually required in a budget for the government to continue the policy development work is miniscule. It is a fraction of a fraction of one per cent.

"Our concern is that the government could eliminate that work completely simply to satisfy Liberal demands."

Scottish Greens finance spokesman Ross Greer (Image: PA) Asked what he would think if there was no spending on independence, he said:  "It would be a worrying signal to the Yes movement overall if the SNP were, for the sake of four Liberal votes on a budget, to eliminate all government activity on independence.

"It's already a tiny proportion of what the Scottish Government does. It is a handful of officials doing policy development work."

He was pressed if there is no independence spending would the Scottish Government be failing to respect that mandate.

"I think it would be extremely hard for the SNP to explain to pro independence voters why their pro independence government is no longer working towards independence," he said.

"There are dozens if not hundreds of other things for the Scottish Government to do on any given day. It can do all of those things and have this small team gradually building up that policy case for what on day one independence looks like.

"So many of the issues we deal with on a day to day basis, like the cost of living crisis, have in independence a route to their solution."

In return for their support for the 2025/26 budget, the Greens want £4.7 billion for climate and nature action, fair funding for councils, including the removal of a council tax freeze and any cap, and a commitment to advance policy work on independence.

They are also seeking a mechanism in any deal they could make with the Scottish Government to ensure ministers could not later drop commitments they had made after ministers axed a number of commitments in this year's budget including free school meals for pupils in primary six and seven.

"The SNP's actions over the last year made trust very challenging for us, therefore we believe we need some kind of mechanism to give us confidence that what we've agreed would actually be delivered," said Mr Greer.

Mr Swinney dropped the post of minister for independence after he became First Minister, moving  Jamie Hepburn to the post of minister for parliamentary business.

He also has not published any further policy papers on independence with the latest of the Building a New Scotland series of papers, on justice in an independent Scotland, published on April 25 this year, before he became First Minister.

It cost £11,867 to produce. It is not known if any more papers will be published in this series. will be taken in due course.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Ministers are discussing the budget with all parties and the draft budget will be set out in the Scottish Parliament on 4 December.”