THE co-leader of the Scottish Greens has said the party will stand at least 31 candidates, more than ever before in Scotland.
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Lorna Slater said a vote for the Scottish Greens means “the climate and nature emergencies get a look-in”.
It comes after Rishi Sunak (below) announced on Wednesday that the next General Election would take place on July 4.
Slater said: “Having Scottish Greens in the room at every hustings, at every media event, means that the climate and nature emergencies get a look-in because without us there they tend to get forgotten altogether.”
Asked specifically on whether she had any concerns that the Scottish Greens standing in a greater number of seats might split the independence vote, she said that is “kind of neither here nor there”.
Slater continued: “The SNP’s fortunes are a matter for the SNP. The independence movement – and it should be and is – larger than any one political party, so support for independence has been around about half the country for a while now and we aren’t going to get independence just from people elected to Westminster, it actually needs to be a national movement, we need to get support for independence up higher.”
On the same programme, Swinney was also asked about Scottish independence and he confirmed it would still be front and centre of the SNP’s manifesto.
Asked whether any deals could be done in areas where it is very tight between the SNP and the Scottish Conservatives, for example, and whether this might lead the Scottish Greens to step out of the way, Slater said: “There has been no discussion of deals, there are no deals of that kind, we’ve already chosen our candidates.”
The announcement of the election comes around a month after former first minister Humza Yousaf ended the Bute House Agreement.
