Greens promise free buses for all and biggest childcare expansion in generation

The Scottish Greens have promised to deliver free buses for all and the “biggest expansion to childcare in a generation”.

The party’s two co-leaders announced the policies at their spring conference in Glasgow where they pitched their party as a vehicle for taking on the rich and powerful.

Gillian Mackay, who gave birth to her first child last year, said the Greens would propose extending the current funded childcare hours to all children in Scotland from the week after they turn two, regardless of where they live.

“That will mean a funded place for 43,000 more children up and down the country,” she told party members at Strathclyde University.

“More children learning, more parents back at work, and more money in families’ pockets.”

She also pledged to offer 570 hours of funded childcare for every child in Scotland from six months to two years by the end of the next Parliament.

Ms Mackay said: “Too many are being saddled with nursery fees that cost more than the mortgage.

“Too many cutting back on essentials and having their choices made for them, rather than having the independence that comes with a fairer system.

“That’s why, at this election, the Scottish Greens are proposing the biggest expansion of funded childcare for a generation.”

She said the policy will help will help “end the cliff-edge families currently face when maternity leave ends and mums have to face the difficult choice of a huge cut in income, or returning to work and stumping up childcare costs”.

Speaking after Ms Mackay, fellow co-leader Mr Greer pledged to fund free bus travel for all Scots through taxes on the “super rich” and corporations.

He told the conference: “Our manifesto will commit to delivering free bus travel for everyone in Scotland.

“And we’ll provide it on a bus network that has been brought back under public control – ending that failed experiment.

“We will bring to an end the four decades of failure that is the privatisation of the bus network.”

In his speech, he attacked First Minister John Swinney for trying to “charm” Mr Trump and accused the Scottish Government of an “unwillingness to act if it might upset the rich and powerful”.

Addressing Mr Swinney directly, Mr Greer said: “First Minister, your attempts to charm Donald Trump have got you all the way to the local office, but they failed.

“You’ve got nothing to show for them, and history will judge us all, especially the recent high office for what we do here and now.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “It is the duty and responsibility of the First Minister to pursue Scotland’s interests and engage with world leaders, including the US President. This is what the people of Scotland rightly expect of their national leader.

“The Scottish Government has been clear that trade tariffs are damaging to our economy and cause real uncertainty for businesses and workers.”