21 Feb 2026

We have a Green future to win

Friends, I am delighted to be addressing my first spring conference as your co-leader.

I am proud to be doing it at a time when more and more people are joining our party and when we stand on the verge of a historic election result.

Conference, this year we hit a record number of Green members. There are over 9500 of us, with more people joining every day

Wherever I am canvassing or campaigning, from Falkirk to Inverness, from towns to cities to villages, I am meeting people who are ready to vote Green for the first time.

That’s not because of me or our MSPs, it is because of you. It is because of everyone in this hall and because of our movement.

It is because of every one of you who has knocked on that extra door, built our branches and kept them going and organised that extra canvassing session.

Ross and I were lucky to be elected to lead a party that has been built over decades by thousands of volunteers, new and old friends and campaigners.

There are a lot of people who have put in a lot of hours and years to get us here. 

They did it because they knew that something had to change.

They could see the climate crisis that was coming while politicians did nothing to stop it.

They could see the destruction of nature happening all around them as more of our native species became extinct.

They could see the growing inequality and all of the poverty and greed that was being embraced by the other parties.

They didn’t see anyone else who was speaking for them or demanding better. 

So they built a movement that could.

A movement based on solidarity with our planet and the promise of better for the generations that would come after us.

It meant taking the message out to doorsteps, campaigning, debating and organising in communities all over Scotland and building from the ground up.

Whether you have been in this party for days, weeks, months or years, you are a part of that story and are part of the reason why we are here today.

So I want to thank all of you, and everyone who has been on that journey with us.

Thank you conference, thank you friends.

Conference, we have 75 days to change Scotland

Only 75 days to build a fairer, greener and better Scotland.

This is my third Holyrood election with our party. 

My first was in 2016 when I organised canvassing and campaigning across the Lothian region. 

With a sense of change in the air we secured 6 MSPs

In 2021 I stood to be the first ever Green MSP for Central Scotland, building on the incredible work of Kirsten Robb in previous elections. 

Some of our critics said it wouldn’t happen, and that our party could not win in post-industrial Scotland.

But we didn’t give up, and we made it. 

I’ll never forget the enormous cheer that came from the small group of Greens who were at the count with me. 

Even as someone who is partially deaf it was some noise.

It was a historic night for us. We won more votes and more Green MSPs than ever before.

It gave us the opportunity to turn Green policies into action. 

It meant we could cut the cost of transport, reverse the loss of our nature and help households and families on the frontline of Westminster’s cost of living crisis.

Conference, it was our most successful election. SO FAR.

In only 75 days Scotland will go to the polls again.

It will be a choice about what kind of future we want.

It will be about what kind of values we believe in and the kind of Scotland we want to be.

I don’t want us to be a country where thousands of children are growing up in totally avoidable poverty and where hunger is a part of so many daily lives.

This is one of the richest countries on Earth, but there are people queuing at food banks, freezing in damp flats and going without, and all the while we’re constantly being told there’s no money left.

We have wildfires in the summer and flooding in the winter while bills are soaring and fossil fuel giants are posting record profits.

From a House of Lords stuffed full of cronies to a Buckingham Palace riddled with scandal, the system is broken.

And it goes right to the top.

This week the man formerly known as Prince Andrew was arrested. 

He is one of the wealthiest and most privileged people in the world, but has brought nothing but shame and disgrace.

Some of the allegations that are already in the public domain are truly appalling.

There is no case for hereditary rule in the 21st century. 

It is a ridiculous, antiquated relic of a system that flies in the face of democracy.

There is no excuse for giving so much unearned power to anyone, let alone someone so vile.

The problem goes far beyond Andrew. It is the system that created him and allowed him to have so much power in the first place.

Conference, it’s beyond time that we abolished the Monarchy.

But it’s not just them. 

There are millions of people who waited for 14 years to finally get rid of the Tories.

Now we have a Labour government that is targeting disabled people, punishing refugees and arming Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.

Enough is enough.

Is this really what people waited all those long years for? 

It is a Labour government in name only - one that wants us to accept another decade of managed decline while telling us that we are the irresponsible ones for believing things can be better.

It’s no wonder that so much hope has gone from our politics and that so many people are feeling so disillusioned.

It’s our job as Greens to bring that hope back. 

It is our job to show that things don’t have to be like this.

But words aren’t enough. 

We aren’t here to talk about how we want things to be, we’re here to change them. 

That’s what we are doing in our Parliament and in council chambers across the country.

It’s what we did when we introduced free bus travel for everyone under 22, opening up our country and putting money back in people’s pockets.

It’s what we did when we secured free school meals for thousands more children and ended the scandal of school meal debt. 

It’s what we did when we ended peak rail fares, saving hundreds of pounds for workers and students who have no say over when they travel. 

And it’s what we did when we froze rents and introduced a system of rent controls, helping people to make their houses into homes by facing down the landlord lobby and standing squarely on the side of renters.

We did that together, and we did it by making sure that the rich paid their fair share.

The Tories try to make us pity their rich donors and tell us that we shouldn’t tax their private jets and mansions.

They want us to feel sorry for people who have wealth that goes far beyond what anyone needs and what anyone can spend.

I’m proud that because of the Greens, Scotland’s richest people have been made to pay more 

It’s how we can fund our drive to lift every child out of poverty.

It’s how we can pay for climate action.

It’s how we can build the fairer, greener and better Scotland that I know we can be.

A better society isn’t one controlled by the Jim Ratcliffes of the world who know the cost of everything but the value of nothing, and who try to stoke divisions from their mansions in Monaco.

It isn’t one where proud communities like Grangemouth can be treated as collateral damage when the same people decide that it's time to cut and run.

The kind of society I want us to be is one that recognises the worth of every one of us and where we spread wealth rather than letting a small number of people hoard it.

The kind of society where we look out for our neighbors rather than scapegoating and blaming them.

The kind of society that says Refugees are welcome.

The kind of society where people are free to be who they really are.

The kind of society that says trans rights are human rights. 

That is the Scotland I believe in and the country I know we can be.

Conference, we have done a lot, but we have much more to do and much further to go.

In the weeks ahead we will be laying out our vision for change, with our boldest manifesto to date. And the super rich will hate it.

It’s going to be focused on the cost of living and on building a Scotland people can afford.

One of the focuses for it will be cutting costs for children and families.

Last year me and my husband became parents to Callan. 

But whenever I take him to his playgroup or to see other babies, what I hear from parents is always the same.

They love their children dearly, but they are struggling. 

Everything is getting more expensive, but it’s the cost of childcare in particular.

For far too many families, Scotland’s childcare system just isn’t working. 

It’s too expensive, too inflexible, and your options are too often down to a postcode lottery. 

Families are facing the difficult choice of cutting their working hours, or cutting back on essentials. 

We know that high quality, affordable childcare is one of the best ways we can tackle inequality, both for children and for women returning to the workplace. 

But cost is such a barrier, and families up and down the country are missing out. 

Right now, too many parents — especially mums — are forced into impossible choices.

Too many are being saddled with nursery fees that cost more than a mortgage.

Too many are having to cut-back on essentials and having their choices made for them rather than having the independence that comes with a fairer system.

That’s why, at this election, the Scottish Greens are proposing the biggest expansion of funded childcare for a generation. 

We will start by extending the current funded childcare hours to all children in Scotland from the week after they turn two, regardless of where they live. 

That will mean a funded place for over 43,000 more children up and down the country. More children learning, more parents back at work, more money in families pockets 

Next, we will offer 570 hours of funded childcare for every child in Scotland from 6 months to 2 years by the end of the next Parliament. 

This will help end the cliff edge families currently face, when maternity leave ends and mums have to face the difficult choice of a huge cut in income, or returning to work and stumping up childcare costs. 

This is an investment in our children, in all the women currently priced out of the workforce by childcare, and in the dedicated staff who are caring for the next generation. 

Scotland’s parents and their children deserve a better deal. And the Scottish Greens will deliver it.

Conference, this is the kind of change that Scotland needs.

This is the change we are here to deliver.

Conference, our country has so much potential.

But one thing that is holding us back is a UK settlement where the real powers and vetoes lie with a distant Westminster government that has proven it can’t be trusted.

Not even Anas Sarwar believes Keir Starmer is fit to be Prime Minister, so why should we have to put up with him?

Why should we constantly be told that we need to wait for Labour to fix things for us rather than getting on with it ourselves.

Conference, I have a confession.

We all have a past and we’ve all done things we regret, and I’m going to tell you mine.

I voted No in the 2014 referendum. 

I believed the things that we were told by Westminster. 

I believed that it was the best way of staying in Europe.

We were all lied to.

They promised us we would be better together but they left us with a Brexit we didn’t vote for and Boris Johnson. 

They left us with the chaotic shambles of Liz Truss and hyper-inflation, costing jobs and hiking up prices in the process.

And yet we still have the same people telling us that we should trust them now.

Every vote for the Scottish Greens is a vote to take our future into our own hands. 

Every vote for the Scottish Greens is a vote for a fairer, greener and independent Scotland.

Without independence we have the real prospect of a hard right Reform government that wants to deport our neighbours and imitate Donald Trump.

Meanwhile we have a Labour government that is trying to beat them by enacting all of their policies for them: trapping families in hotels, ripping apart indefinite leave to remain and threatening to deport people who have lived here for decades.

It is deeply immoral and it is entirely counterproductive.

You don’t beat Reform by copying them. You do it by standing up to them and taking them on.

This May there will be Reform candidates all over Scotland, trying to cause division, telling people to vote for a party that is bankrolled by hedge fund managers, bankers, crypto investors and tax exiles.

Does that really sound like a party that cares about ordinary people and families?

The last thing Scotland needs is a Reform party led by a racist con man like Nigel Farage and a multi millionaire, Lord Offord, who refuses to tell anyone how many homes he owns or how much his yacht cost him.

Conference, we don’t just have to hold back Reform. We have to beat them.

But as Greens we have a lot of work to do if we are going to be the natural alternative in the parts of Scotland that have not heard from us in the past and where we have not been as active.

In the weeks ahead, we need to reach as many people as possible to tell them what we will do to lower their bills, to cut the cost of living and to build a better society that works for us all. 

That’s what Green politics is about - ending inequality, creating good well paid jobs that will tackle the climate emergency and helping people to build better futures for them and their families.

Green politics is a world where we all have more time with the people we love and care about. Where we work to live rather than living to work, and where a four day week with no loss of pay is normal rather than exceptional.

I want every worker to know that their rights and voices will be respected and every rogue boss or exploitative employer to know that they can’t get away with it any longer.

This can be a country where trade unions are celebrated and empowered rather than being held back by anti-union laws that were introduced by the Tories and have been kept in place by successive Labour governments.

Green politics is about caring for each other and the world around us and ensuring that future generations have the best possible life chances and opportunities.

A Scotland where everyone is looked after from their first day to their last.

Where nobody is forced to work three jobs at once while still worrying about how they will pay the rent or keep a roof over their heads.

Where public services are properly funded because we know that schools, healthcare, and community centres matter more than tax loopholes for greedy corporations

A Green society is one where everyone can have a warm and affordable home that doesn’t cost the earth to heat.

One where every child can have a free school meal without worrying about shame or stigma. 

Where we have publicly owned buses that actually run and that serve our communities. 

Where our towns and villages have high streets that thrive and where we have clean air and rivers. 

Conference, we have a green future to win.

We have 75 days to do it. 

75 days to write the next chapter in our party’s history and win more Green votes than ever before.

75 days to secure a fairer, greener and kinder Scotland.

Let's honour the thousands of people who have built our movement by getting to work and doing them proud.