The Scottish Greens remain open to joining the SNP in government again, the party’s co-leader has said.
Ross Greer also said his party could “absolutely” become the main opposition at Holyrood within the next five years.
Speaking in Inverness ahead of his party’s conference, Mr Greer told the Press Association he was open to welcoming defectors from Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats.
The Greens are just two seats behind Labour, on 15 and 17 respectively, while Reform recently dropped to 16 after an MSP quit the party.
The Greens went into government with the SNP after the 2021 Holyrood election (Lesley Martin/PA)
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Under the leadership of Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, the Greens joined Nicola Sturgeon’s government in 2021 but a shock sacking by her successor, Humza Yousaf, fractured relations.
Asked if the Greens would join an SNP government again, Mr Greer told PA: “The short answer to that is yes. The Greens believe that the public expect politicians to co-operate together to actually get stuff done where that’s possible.
“Where we disagree, we’re going to do it really, really robustly.”
Mr Greer said that included their fierce opposition of data centres. The party also faces an SNP which has moved towards oil and gas.
The Scottish Greens won the most MSPs in the party’s history in May (Milligan/PA)
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But the co-leader said his party “liked to get stuff done”, adding: “The politics of just making speeches about how crap everybody else is doesn’t lift a child out of poverty, doesn’t save a single species, doesn’t protect our planet.
“That’s why the Greens have always focused on results. We can agree to disagree whilst focusing on those areas of common ground that the public expect from us.”
Mr Greer told PA that his party now had more than 11,000 members. He said he was confident it is bigger than Scottish Labour’s membership.
The party won just two more MSPs than the Greens at the elections in May and Reform’s loss of an MSP earlier in the week saw Labour become the main opposition, after previously tying with Reform.
Asked if the Greens could become the main opposition this Parliament, Mr Greer said they could.
“Absolutely,” he said. “The Scottish Greens are currently the most successful Green Party in the world.
“We just doubled our number of seats in the Parliament.”
Mr Greer also said the Greens could win the City of Edinburgh Council next year while doubling the number of councillors.
For those elected under other parties, Mr Greer suggested they could find a home in his party.
He said in the Highlands: “If somebody realises that their values are actually much better aligned with the Greens, that they prefer our way of doing politics, that constructive approach, then of course we’re going to be really happy to have that conversation with them.”
He added: “Ultimately, it’s a decision for our local branches and our national council to make. I don’t get to just dictate these things. We’re a democratic organisation, but we’re a growing party.”
Liberal Democrat MP Susan Murray said: “So long as Ross Greer and Gillian MacKay refuse to condemn the antisemitic motion passed by their sister party down south, I don’t know who’ll be rushing to defect their way.”