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Harvie warns SNP not to take Green budget votes for granted

Scotland's next budget must deliver a fairer, greener Scotland to secure Green support.

Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie has warned the First Minister, John Swinney, that he cannot take Scottish Green votes for granted on the upcoming Scottish budget, reminding the SNP leader that his party are the only ones to have ever brought down an SNP budget. 

The Glasgow MSP said reversing the broken promises made by the SNP government since the end of the Bute House Agreement would be a priority for his party.

Mr Harvie said, “We’ve shown how we could make big savings by stopping tax breaks to wealthy landowners and enterprise grants to arms companies, and by bringing in more money to support our healthcare system through a public health levy on supermarkets. 

“But these steps are only the start. Extra funds raised through tax or coming from the UK Government must go into reversing the broken promises made by the SNP government since they ended the Bute House Agreement. 

“That includes reinstating the plan to roll out free school meals to all children in Scotland’s primary schools before the next election, restoring the Scottish Green’s Nature Restoration Fund, fully funding an ambitious programme to cut energy bills and emissions from our home heating, and reversing the decision to bring back peak rail fares which punish workers and students.”

As Scottish Green MSPs, we have a responsibility to engage with the process in good faith, and with honesty. But as the only party that ever brought down an SNP budget, as John Swinney knows to his cost, we need to be clear that they cannot take our votes for granted.”

Mr Harvie also said the Scottish Greens MSPs would not ‘wave through’ the Climate Targets bill currently going through parliament, repeating calls for a ramping up of climate action from the minority SNP Government. 

He said, “The first two Climate Change Acts were statements of high ambition. This third one will be an admission that, as Greens have long argued, Scotland is years behind where we should be. 

“It is an admission that needs to be made; but making it demands an urgent acceleration of action here and now, not just promises of more plans to come.

“But what have we seen in the last six months from the now minority Scottish Government? Instead of accepting that missed targets demand accelerated action, they’ve chosen a sharp U-turn on much of the action that the Greens had been advancing.”