POLITICS: Patrick Harvie will QUIT as Scottish Greens leader if SNP deal axed

Bute House Agreement is seriously under threat as the Scottish Greens MSPs set out to woo unhappy MSPs, while some SNP figures would be happy to see the back of it …

**Scottish Green co-leader and minister Patrick Harvie.**

By Lucy Ashton

Patrick Harvie has admitted that he will quit as Scottish Greens co-leader if the party vote to axe the Bute House Agreement. He has been in a leadership role for more than a decade but will step aside if his ministerial role is removed and the coalition deal with the SNP is ripped up.

He became a junior Scottish Government minister in 2021, alongside Lorna Slater, after they inked a power-sharing deal with the Nats which allows them to have a majority administration.

But after three years in power, Greens members are restless and have forced a vote on ending it.

While the Greens MSPs plead with the members not to pull the plug on the agreement, some SNP back-benchers have stuck the boot in.

Ivan McKee, former business minister, was one of these as he told BBC News: “I understand the Greens may be angry about the situation they find themselves in with the climate targets and if I was them I would probably want to exit as well.

“From the SNP’s point of view, I don’t think having the Greens in government has done us any favours either.”

SNP MP Joanna Cherry, pictured right, has also repeatedly called for a vote among her party members on relinquishing the deal.

She said: “SNP members should get a 2nd vote on BHA. If we are to recover as a party from current challenges we need to address problems like this alliance with a deeply unpopular party on the doorsteps rather than sweeping them under the carpet as per previous practice.”

And veteran SNP grandee Alex Neil pleaded with the Greens to axe the agreement in order to save his own party from electoral extinction. He added: “I think it’s doing enormous damage to the political standing of the Scottish National Party.”

Mr Harvie admitted at the weekend that he didn’t know how the vote, scheduled for the end of May, would go, just days after there was confident rumblings from his MSPs that it would not be axed. His party his heavily divided after climate change targets were axed and not properly replaced.

There is also discontent about the Scottish Government’s reaction to the Cass Report, with NHS Scotland pausing puberty blocker prescriptions to those under the age of 18.

The Greens co-leader told STV that he shared his members “disappointment” about the dumped targets, but said they were “physically impossible” to achieve as Scotland is years behind schedule.

“This is about whether the Scottish Green party believe it can achieve more for the people of Scotland, for the environment and for a better, fairer and greener Scotland by staying in Government. I believe that we can.”

First Minister Humza Yousaf is desperate for the deal to continue as he made it a key part of his campaign to lead the SNP. He was asked about it at the weekend and insisted that he thought it would remain, and that he would not allow his own vote on it.