Scottish Green Party leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie deliver a statement at the Scottish Parliament. The SNP leader Humza Yousaf held an early morning meeting on Thursday where he dissolved the power sharing Bute House Agreement between the two parties
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00:00 As you're probably aware, this morning the two of us, my fellow co-leader Lorna and I
00:15 went to a meeting with the First Minister at the new house where he informed us of his
00:19 decision to end the co-operation agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish
00:24 Greens.
00:25 This is a total new turn on his position from recent weeks and even days where he had reasserted
00:33 his Government's commitment to the progressive policies that our parties had jointly agreed
00:38 on and the need to ramp up climate action in the face of decades of political inaction,
00:45 including from the SNP Government.
00:49 The First Minister has decided, I'm sorry to say, to capitulate to the most reactionary,
00:55 backward looking forces within the SNP and it's the opposite of what's in Scotland's
00:59 best interests.
01:02 Humza Yousaf became First Minister last year when his members rejected the idea of an SNP
01:08 lurch to the right and he now looks set to give his party what they rejected.
01:15 He'll be shoring up support from his Conservative wing and ditching the progressive policy platform
01:20 he was elected on, which he continued to endorse just days ago.
01:25 We now expect to see a raft of progressive policies watered down, delayed or ditched
01:29 altogether from rent controls to nature restoration, from new sustainable transport policies to
01:36 Scotland's leading approach on decarbonising homes.
01:41 But to those in the SNP who do still believe in a progressive and fairer Scotland, our
01:47 door is open.
01:48 Over the last two and a half years, we are deeply proud of what the Scottish Greens have
01:54 delivered as part of Government.
01:57 Scrapping peak railfares, an emergency rent freeze, a ban on new incineration, record
02:04 funding for climate and nature and the most significant expansion of the real living wage
02:10 ever in Scotland.
02:12 In the coming months, we were set to announce a new national park, progress a permanent
02:18 system of rent controls and move to banning conversion therapy.
02:25 We will continue to fight for these progressive policies, which our voters and our members
02:30 backed overwhelmingly.
02:32 We came into Government knowing the challenges that lay ahead and we were prepared to tackle
02:38 them head on.
02:40 It was right that our members took time to reflect on the agreement following the significant
02:45 news last week that Scotland must rethink our trajectory to net zero.
02:51 But given the transformative change that the Bute House Agreement was delivering, from
02:56 rent controls to record investment in the green economy, we are confident that our members
03:02 would have continued to prioritise progressive change.
03:07 As co-leaders of the Scottish Greens, we were prepared to put our own political careers
03:12 on the line with our members to defend our achievements in Government.
03:18 Our party, like all Green parties around the world, is committed to collaborative politics.
03:24 Scotland needs parties who are willing to co-operate in the best interests of our country
03:29 and of future generations.
03:31 We remain committed to that kind of politics.
03:35 Sadly, it seems we are the last party in Scotland to hold those values.
03:39 We'll take a few questions and there will be more to say later.
03:42 Lorna Patrick, did the First Minister stack you and why?
03:45 The First Minister is going to have to explain his decision, but this is his decision to
03:50 end a co-operation agreement that until days ago he was giving his full backing to.
03:56 Could he explain why?
03:58 Well I think you're going to have to ask him to explain that, not only to yourselves
04:02 and to Scotland, but to those SNP members who endorsed the Bute House agreement and
04:07 who wanted a progressive policy platform that Lorna and I have just outlined.
04:11 Have you been betrayed?
04:12 Do you feel betrayed?
04:13 I think the future generations of Scotland have been betrayed.
04:16 The progressive policies that Greens are working towards were about creating a long-standing
04:21 vision for a greener and fairer Scotland and now anything we see brought to the Chamber
04:25 will be watered down, delayed, underfunded.
04:29 It's a worse future for Scotland.
04:31 Given the fact that you've given your own members a vote in the future of the Bute House
04:34 agreement, do you not feel as though you've kind of forced the First Minister's hand
04:36 on this?
04:37 No, we were committed to a democratic process, empowering our members to express their views.
04:43 We'd already been involved in significant discussions with lots of party members around
04:47 the country.
04:48 That was a really positive and constructive discussion.
04:51 I'd like to have had them given the opportunity to make that decision in a few weeks' time.
04:55 Sadly the First Minister has decided to dump a progressive policy platform that he was
05:00 previously committed to.
05:01 You talk a lot about delivering transformative change.
05:03 We know that many of your policies have been abandoned or dead in the water.
05:06 What have you actually achieved since you've been in government?
05:08 I've given you a clear list of what we've achieved.
05:11 Record funding for climate and nature, that nature restoration fund, recycling improvement
05:15 fund, ban on new incineration, rent freeze during the cost of living crisis.
05:21 That was something that no other nation of the UK delivered.
05:24 Scottish Greens delivered that.
05:25 And if you look at some of the policies that the SNC's right wing like to criticise us
05:30 for, they were in the SNP's own manifesto, from protecting the marine environment to
05:34 transgender people's rights.
05:36 They were in the SNP's manifesto.
05:37 Those candidates didn't mean it when they stood for election on that manifesto and now
05:41 comes the use of us giving into that.
05:43 Do you think that support of the government in many policies, particularly in budgets
05:46 when you were in government, will we still be as cooperative with the Scottish government
05:50 when it comes to things like the budget going forward?
05:52 Do you think the current government will still be in place for the next budget?
05:56 We are now a party of opposition.
05:58 We will continue to work for progressive politics and policies.
06:02 It remains to be seen what it is going to look like.
06:04 We'll just take a couple more.
06:06 One from yourself and then...
06:08 Will you stay on the podium?
06:10 That's another decision for another time.
06:12 Was your refusal to accept the Cass report as a valid scientific document the final straw?
06:18 We've made very clear that our thoughts should be with the very small number of young people
06:23 who have now been told that they won't get access to the healthcare that they weren't
06:27 expecting to access.
06:28 They'll be extremely distressed.
06:30 The principal priority, not just of individual politicians, but of government and the NHS,
06:35 should be to support them.
06:37 And politicians, I think, have a responsibility to call out the fact that that report has
06:41 landed in the context of a wave of transphobia and homophobia that's been deliberately cultivated
06:47 by a toxic cultural group.
06:49 Thank you very much.
06:51 [Music]
06:55 [MUSIC]