Greens told not to split Yes vote

THE SNP has made a desperate plea to the Greens not to run candidates in seats the Conservatives could win.

Senior Nationalist MP Tommy Sheppard urged the party to be ‘mindful of not splitting the pro-Yes vote and certainly not splitting the anti-Tory vote’.

His comments come as polls published last weekend indicated the Tories could win up to a dozen seats in Scotland in June’s General Election, while the SNP could lose up to 11.

The Conservatives said the appeal proved the SNP was ‘running scared’ of the Tories’ surge in the popularity north of the Border.

Mr Sheppard, who was elected on to the SNP’s powerful national executive committee in 2015 and ran to be deputy leader last year, will defend his Edinburgh East seat.

He said the Greens should not stand in Edinburgh South, currently held by Scottish Labour’s only MP, Ian Murray, because he believes the seat is a three-way contest between Labour, the SNP and the Tories, and that ‘in those circumstances I don’t think the Greens should be targeting that sort of seat’.

Tory MSP Ross Thomson, who will run for Aberdeen South, said: ‘The Greens have to put up or shut up. They can’t pretend to be a proper party while sitting this election out and begging its voters to back someone else. That’s a shameful approach.

‘It’s also very telling that the SNP has taken this step. It shows the party is rattled and running scared, and its MPs right across Scotland are terrified of losing their seats. So they should be. People are sick of the Nationalists’ rabble-rousing on separation.’ Scottish Greens co-convener Maggie Chapman admitted last week that she would be happy to support other parties’ candidates if it meant ‘getting Tories out of Scotland’.

She suggested the party was unlikely to stand in the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale seat being defended by Tory Scottish Secretary David Mundell, or in neighbouring Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.

A Scottish Greens spokesman said: ‘Decisions about which constituencies to contest on June 8 are for local branches of our party.

‘We will give people the option of voting for a Green MP who will resist the Tories’ disastrous plans for a hard Brexit, who will speak up for Scotland’s right to choose its future, and will fight for the environmental and social protections other parties pay lip service to.’