THE Bute House agreement offers “certainty”, Stephen Flynn has said, as he poured cold water on the possibility of an SNP conference vote on the deal with the Scottish Greens.
During a campaign event in Cambuslang, the SNP Westminster leader told journalists that the deal helps the party to pass budgets and “govern effectively” after growing calls for party members to be allowed a vote on the deal negotiated by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Former SNP leadership contender Kate Forbes backed calls for a “check in” with the party membership over the co-operation deal with the Greens, which gives the party two ministers in the Scottish Government.
Forbes suggested that a ballot could take place at the party’s conference in October, but Flynn suggested that this might not come to fruition.
Speaking to journalists after campaigning with Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election candidate Katy Loudoun, Flynn said: “I don't think it's necessarily a case of someone being allowed a vote or otherwise.
“In terms of party conference, some people would have to come forward with a proposal, and there's obviously different mechanisms behind the scenes in terms of how the party allows something onto the agenda.
“So I don't know whether that would be something which could happen or otherwise, but at the end of the day, we're all democrats and we're always allowed to disagree without being disagreeable.”
Flynn added that the key issue from his perspective was that there is “certainty” in Holyrood allowing the SNP-led Scottish Government to “govern effectively”.
“Obviously, the Bute House agreement helps us to do just that, and if anyone's advocating something alternative to that they're gonna have to lay out their proposals in a lot more detail.
“Because what we do know is that through the agreement we can get budgets passed, we can get a policy agenda in place and that certainty is important, not just to us in terms of our legislative agenda, but to the public as well.
“And I don't think the public would necessarily take kindly to us navel gazing at a time when they're having to deal with the real issues of the day, namely the cost of living crisis.”
Flynn added that the support of Scottish Green votes in the Scottish Parliament offers “certainty” in a “very challenging political landscape”.
He added: “Whether we like it or not, Holyrood is very polarised and we need to make sure that we can offer certainty to the people of Scotland in terms of budgets, we need to make sure that we can offer certainty to the people of Scotland in terms of the policy agenda that's being taken forward and the ability to deliver upon that.
“I think in real terms that certainty at this moment in time is hugely important because in every aspect of life people's lives are very uncertain.”
Earlier, we told how Forbes joined two other former SNP ministers to call for a ballot on the co-operation agreement which has seen the Greens backing the SNP minority government since 2021 under Nicola Sturgeon.
Both Fergus Ewing and Alex Neil have both said members should have a say when the party conference takes place in October.
After Humza Yousaf won the SNP leadership contest, he reiterated his support for the deal and met with the Scottish Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater following his win.
