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Greens not seeking deals with another party ‘at this point’, says Greer


By PA News



The Scottish Greens are not looking to strike deals with other parties “at this point”, Ross Greer has said.

The West of Scotland MSP vowed to make his party “bolder and braver” as he launched his leadership bid in Glasgow.

Mr Greer put his hat in the ring to lead the left-wing party after veteran MSP Patrick Harvie indicated he would not run in the latest leadership election. He will remain in place until new co-leaders are elected.

Mr Greer, a self-described “eco-socialist”, joins current co-leader Lorna Slater and MSP Gillian Mackay in the race.

In a visit to Glasgow on Thursday, Mr Greer insisted his party was united, amid calls from some members for it to become more radical.

The politician announced universal free bus travel as one of the key policies of his campaign.

The move builds on the Green-led free bus travel scheme for under-22s, something won during the Bute House Agreement (BHA) between the SNP and Greens. Pensioners are also entitled to the benefit.

Mr Greer was a key architect of the BHA and at his campaign event lauded his party’s achievements in government and the policy concessions it won from the SNP.

The 31-year-old, who entered Holyrood when he was 21, did not rule out a return to power-sharing or co-operation agreements with other parties again.

Ross Greer, right, is looking to succeed Patrick Harvie as co-leader of the Greens (Andrew Milligan/PA)
Ross Greer, right, is looking to succeed Patrick Harvie as co-leader of the Greens (Andrew Milligan/PA)

But he said such a deal was unlikely to be made with Labour.

He told the PA news agency: “The Scottish Greens will always, on an issue by issue basis, work with parties that we can find common ground.

“We’ve always taken that approach in Parliament.

“We’ve used that approach to deliver policies like free bus travel for young people but it’s hard to see there being enough agreement between ourselves and the Labour Party as it moves further and further to the right to the point where, frankly, we currently have a UK Labour Government that doesn’t look very different to the Tory government it replaced.”

Ross Greer said a deal with Labour after the 2026 Holyrood election was unlikely (Jane Barlow/PA)
Ross Greer said a deal with Labour after the 2026 Holyrood election was unlikely (Jane Barlow/PA)

Asked if he was ruling out any deals with Labour or the Liberal Democrats, he said that was for party members to decide, but added that it was “extremely unlikely” to happen with Labour.

He accused the party of taking an “anti-democratic” approach to a second independence referendum, which their leader Anas Sarwar opposes.

Asked if he was actively seeking out an agreement with any other party, he said: “Not at this point.

“The Scottish Greens are focusing on what we believe in and focusing on delivering as much as we can between now and the next election.”

He pledged to “bring back hope” to Scottish politics if he wins the leadership, with his campaign heavily focused on the cost-of-living crisis and taxing the wealthy.

Pledging to to take the party further, he said: “I think we need to be bolder and braver.

“You could use the word radical to describe that, absolutely, because to deliver on our ideas, to deliver the kind of transformational policies that we know are required, like universal free bus travel, we need to take on the super rich.

“We need to take on the extremely wealthy.”

Scottish Labour has been approached for comment.

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