The Greens are turning on the SNP

The SNP hasn’t wanted for its woes lately but now there is fresh trouble on the way. Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, tells the BBC it is ‘unlikely’ that her party will vote for the next Scottish government budget after the Nationalists unveiled £500 million in cuts aimed at balancing Holyrood’s books. Many of the services reduced or scrapped in SNP finance minister Shona Robison’s announcement last week were originally put in place by the Greens when they were in coalition between 2021 and 2024. Humza Yousaf’s decision in April to end the governing pact brought a vote of no confidence and the announcement of his resignation four days later.

Appearing on the Sunday Show, Slater said her party had ‘worked really hard within government’ to get funding for ‘things like Zero Waste Scotland, all the net zero, transportation, active travel’. Among the Robison cuts which the Greens are opposing are the scrapping of an all-off-peak rail fares pilot, reductions in the budgets for nature restoration and active travel, abandoning a £2 million scheme to provide free bus travel to asylum seekers, and a £460 million raid on the ScotWind wealth fund.