‘ I’ll stand down if Greens vote to leave agreement’

PATRICK Harvie has confirmed he will quit as Scottish Green co- leader if party members vote to leave the Bute House Agreement, though he dismissed a no confidence motion in him at Holyrood as “sordid political gameplaying”.

The Green minister said he shares the “distress” of some in his party over the Scottish Government dropping its 2030 climate target and last week’s decision to pause the prescription of puberty blockers at Scotland’s only gender clinic.

However, he argued leaving the power- sharing deal with the SNP would be a “mistake”, insisting the Greens should not be a party which quits when “things get difficult”.

Mr Harvie said his party has been on a “rollercoaster” recently and he accepted some ways of working need to change.

Speaking yesterday, he responded to the motion of no confidence in him lodged by Ash Regan of the Alba Party.

Ms Regan criticised his response to the Cass Review of treatments offered to young transgender people, saying Mr Harvie had sided with “ideology over clinical evidence”.

But Mr Harvie, the Scottish Government’s zero carbon buildings minister, said the issue is about the rights of young trans people, saying: “The very small number of young people who have been told that they won’t now get access to the treatment that they need must be extremely distressed about that.

“I think our thoughts should be with them, rather than turning this into a pretty sordid political bit of gameplaying.”

The minister said the

“hostile toxicity that’s been whipped up against transgender people is if anything worse than the homophobia of the 80s and 90s”.

He said a “full, comprehensive ban” on conversion practices is needed as well as bringing down waiting times for transgender healthcare.

The Scottish Green Party is shortly expected to confirm the date of its Extraordinary General Meeting ( EGM), where party members will get a chance to vote on whether they should remain in the Bute House Agreement.

Discussing whether he will stay if the Greens go back into opposition, he said: “I genuinely don’t see how it would be realistic for me to carry on in that way in those circumstances.

“But this is the least important aspect of this.

“This is about our climate future, this is about the future direction of Scotland, that’s what we’re focused on.”