Greens support ‘de-facto’ plan for election

The co-leader of the Scottish Greens has given his backing to plans to make the next Westminster election a “de-facto” referendum on independence if the Scottish Government is blocked from holding its own ballot.

Patrick Harvie said while he would prefer for a referendum to be held, if this is blocked the next general election could be the “only ability we have then to put the question to the public”.

But he came under fire from Labour and the Liberal Democrats for his stance, with Labour MSP Sarah Boyack claiming that the “Scottish Green Party is deciding to put flags before the future of our planet”.

She hit out after Mr Harvie voiced his support for proposals outlined by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last week.

With Prime Minister Boris Johnson steadfast in his opposition to allowing a second independence referendum to take place, the UK Supreme Court has been asked to consider if the Scottish Government can stage its own consultative ballot.

If this is ruled as being outside of Holyrood’s powers, Ms Sturgeon has said she will make the next Westminster election a “de-facto referendum” on independence.

Tory net zero spokesman Liam Kerr MSP said: “The Scottish Greens have long been derided as merely an environmental offshoot of the SNP – but now we can drop the ‘environmental’ bit from that definition.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said it was “astonishing to hear the leader of a Green party say they would go into a general election fixated primarily on one issue”.