SNP may lose majority at Holyrood as Greens rebel

THE SNP could lose its working majority at Holyrood if the Scottish Greens end their power-sharing deal over an abandoned greenhouse gas target.

The Greens are to call an extraordinary general meeting at which party members are expected to vote on whether to continue with the deal, which kept the SNP in power after it failed to win an overall majority in 2021.

The Scottish Green Party co-leader Patrick Harvie said things have “come to a head” after the Scottish Government scrapped its target to cut greenhouse gases by 75 per cent by 2030 after experts warned it was unachievable.

Now furious Scottish Green members are demanding that the party’s leaders consider ripping up their power-sharing deal.

Chas Booth, a Scottish Green councillor in Edinburgh, wrote to the party’s executive, demanding an extraordinary general meeting be held “as soon as reasonably possible” to consider pulling out of the coalition with the SNP.

He warned the Greens were being “used as a figleaf for the SNP’s woeful and inexcusable climate inaction”.

Mr Booth said there had been “anger” on a party members’ call on Thursday at the Greens being “part of a Government abandoning climate targets”.

His call was backed by Anthony Carroll, a Glasgow councillor, who accused the SNP of having “shown a lot of contempt in the past year”.

Meanwhile, Labour has reiterated its “iron-clad” commitment to climate leadership. Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, called the SNP’s U-turn a “humiliating admission of defeat”.

Labour has a stated aim of achieving net zero by 2045, with an interim target of at least 70 per cent by 2030.

Douglas Lumsden, the Scottish Conservative shadow secretary for net zero, said: “Abandoning their flagship, self-imposed climate-change target is an abject humiliation for the SNP.

“But the reality is that both Labour and the SNP’s policies would spell disaster for Scotland’s economy.”