SNP ends power-sharing deal with Scottish Greens over climate strategy | Scottish politics

The historic power-sharing agreement between the Scottish National party and Scottish Greens is to end after a crisis over the government’s climate strategy.

The Bute House agreement was signed in August 2021 by the then SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, and the Scottish Greens co-leader, Patrick Harvie, bringing the Greens into government for the first time in the UK.

Humza Yousaf, Sturgeon’s successor as first minister, convened an emergency cabinet meeting early on Thursday after SNP backbenchers began openly attacking the deal.

In a statement issued half an hour before the first minister’s press conference, the Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater accused the SNP of “selling out future generations to appease the most reactionary forces in the country” by walking away from the Bute House agreement.

Slater accused the SNP of betraying the electorate, and added that “by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political cooperation, he can no longer be trusted”.

Appealing to SNP members “who do care about climate, trans rights, independence and our country”, Slater asked them to consider “if they are in the right party for their values, or if their home should be with us as we prepare to step up our defence of the planet in opposition”.

She also expressed frustration that Scottish Green party members had been denied the chance to have their democratic say on the future of the agreement.

The Scottish Greens had been due to hold their own meeting later in May on whether to leave the agreement after the Scottish government abandoned its target of cutting carbon emissions by 75% by 2030.

Tensions had been building between Yousaf and the Greens over several issues central to the Bute House agreement, including gender recognition, road building, climate strategy, marine policy and Yousaf’s unilateral decision to freeze council tax rates after the SNP’s humiliating defeat to Labour in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection.

Recent polls suggest the SNP faces losing dozens of seats at the next general election and Yousaf has been under growing pressure from within his party to scrap the agreement in order to neutralise opposition attacks and minimise the backlash from voters.

The veteran SNP MSP Christine Grahame told ITV News Border on Wednesday she believed the agreement had to end.

“I think it’s run its course. I’ve been here when we had a minority government and I think there’s such a divergence between what the Greens want and what the SNP are looking for,” she said.

“I think the divergence is too great now and it’s in the interests of neither party to continue. So I’d be content if the SNP were to say: ‘We’re going to work as a minority government.’”