Doubling child poverty payment our priority
Greens also vow to support regulating rents
SCOTTISH Green co-leader Patrick Harvie has said the doubling of an anti-poverty payment will be an early priority if he becomes a Government minister.
Harvie said that he wants to “accelerate” progress on increasing the £10-a-week Scottish Child Payment for lowincome families.
In an interview with the Record, the climate change activist also said there may be times where he would use a ministerial car.
Harvie and fellow MSP Lorna Slater are on the verge of making history by becoming the first Greens to enter national government in the UK.
They will be nominated for office if Green party members back a draft deal with Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP tomorrow.
Harvie, an MSP since 2003, said ahead of a crunch party meeting which could formalise a proindependence majority: “I don’t take anything for granted. This is the biggest choice that our party has ever made.
“It presents the biggest opportunities, and it would be foolish to imagine that it doesn’t come with some concerns and some anxieties for party members.”
However, he said there is a “strong shared policy platform” which also protects his party in areas they disagree with the SNP.
On poverty, more than 100 organisations recently called for the Government to double the SCP to £20 a week in the next budget. Asked if boosting it would be an early priority for the Greens, Harvie said: “Yes, and that’s exactly what we said in the cooperation agreement.”
He said: “We’ll have to make the case for this to be an early priority, and the cooperation agreement says that we want to find ways to accelerate the deployment of that programme.”
Harvie also said of plans negotiated with the SNP on regulating rents: “If we can deliver that whole shared policy programme, between now and 2026, that means loads of people will be paying less rent.”
Harvie was also asked if he and Slater will have access to the Government’s ministerial cars.
“I honestly don’t know even what the booking system is for that,” he said. “I’ll bike wherever I can, I’ll use public transport wherever I can, and where I have to, I might occasionally use a car. But yes, I think I’d like to see more of a change within the whole of the Scottish Government.”
Asked if he was saying he would only use a ministerial car if it was absolutely necessary, he said. “Yes... if there’s ever a way of getting to where I’m going by public transport or by active travel that would always be my first choice.”
Harvie said he trusts Sturgeon, but he is far less enthusiastic about her predecessor Alex Salmond: “Given that I did have experience of negotiating with Alex Salmond, and the one time he insisted on taking over the budget negotiations away from John Swinney the whole thing collapsed, and the budget was voted down, I’m not sure his track record would suggest that he’d have been capable of negotiating it with me.”
He also appears to regret locking arms with Salmond at the Yes Scotland launch in 2012. “I think I’ve worn more convincing smiles in my time,” he said.
I’ll bike wherever I can, use public transport, and where I have to, a car