Greens will put “immediate pressure” on a future UK Labour government to end “status quo” politics, the party’s Scottish co-leader has said.
With Labour under Sir Keir Starmer well ahead in the polls ahead of this year’s general election, Patrick Harvie said his party is “like most people around the country” hoping for a change away from the Conservatives in government at Westminster.
But he warned a Labour administration must actually “change the direction of the country” if it is to continue to have the support of voters.
He also said the Greens will “give it our best shot in terms of a campaign in Scotland”.
He said: “Everybody knows this is a UK election year and like most people around the country, Greens are looking forward to seeing little blue dots disappear from the election map on election night.
“But we are also deeply concerned in the morning after we’re going to be looking at the formation of an incoming UK government that will still be committed to Tory fiscal rules, still be committed to Tory spending limits, still be committed to austerity.”
An incoming Labour government needs to be “under immediate pressure to drop that commitment to status quo politics”, the Green MSP insisted, saying Sir Keir’s party should restore its commitment to spend £28 billion on the green economy.
He also said a Labour-run UK government will need to “reset the relationship” which the devolved Holyrood administration that Greens are part of.
Speaking ahead of his party’s spring conference in Edinburgh on Saturday, Mr Harvie stressed the need to “end the toxic approach from the current UK Government that has been seeking to undermine and block action by the devolved Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government for far too long”.
His comments came as the Liberal Democrats accused the Scottish Greens of being “the only green party anywhere in the world to abandon its traditions and swap environmentalism for nationalism”.
Scottish Liberal Democrat net-zero spokeswoman Sanne Dijkstra-Downie said: “The Scottish Greens seem to be experiencing something of an existential crisis.
“They’ve changed colour to something a lot dirtier and a good bit more desperate.
“We shouldn’t forget that in the first year they were in Government, source emissions rose.
“Since then, Patrick Harvie and co have taken to backing brutal climate cuts and whitewashing a string of SNP failures.”
But Mr Harvie hit back, saying: “I would never accuse the Liberal Democrats of abandoning their principles, because I don’t think they ever had any.
“The reality is Scotland is leading the way on some of the stuff we need to do to get carbon emissions down.”
On tackling climate change, he added: “We will continue to do what is necessary, we will continue to put pressure on every UK political party to actually change direction at UK level.”