Former Scottish Green leader Robin Harper brands party ‘careless and cocky’

A former Scottish Green leader claimed the party has become “careless and cocky” in government – with Robin Harper adding it was now “really important” for Labour to get into power at both Holyrood and Westminster.

Mr Harper was the first elected Green parliamentarian anywhere in the UK when he became a Lothian MSP in the first Holyrood elections in 1999 – but he hit out at the party’s current co-leaders, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, claiming their leadership had been “arrogant and abrasive”.

His comments came as the powersharing deal which has brought Mr Harvie and Ms Slater into the Scottish Government continues to come under pressure from SNP members.

While SNP leader and First Minister Humza Yousaf is keen to keep the alliance – which gives his party a majority in the Scottish Parliament – others have questioned it, with veteran SNP MSP Fergus Ewing saying the public “increasingly see the Scottish Greens as hard-left extremists who should never be anywhere near government”.

Writing in The Herald newspaper, Mr Ewing – who recently voted against Ms Slater in a vote of confidence at Holyrood –  said of the coalition agreement between the two parties: “The Green tail is wagging the dog.”

He added: “The SNP are tarnished, damaged and diminished by our continuing voluntary association with these hard-left extremists, and unless the deal is scrapped this will only get far worse.”

Meanwhile, Mr Harper, who recently quit as a member of the Scottish Greens, told the Sunday Mail newspaper the alliance between the two parties would result in both the SNP and Greens losing votes, and it was “highly likely it will not last”.

He told the paper: “That’ll be a good thing and it is really important we get a Labour government now at Westminster and Holyrood.”

Mr Harper, who stood down from the Scottish Parliament in 2011, added: “The Green Party needs a wake-up call – they have been careless and cocky, they are not listening to people and bringing them along.”

The Bute House Agreement between the SNP and Greens had pledged they would bring in policies such as a  deposit return scheme (DRS) and highly protected marine areas (HPMAs) in Scotland – but both of these have had to be put on hold after coming in for heavy criticism.

Mr Harper, meanwhile, went on to criticise the party’s current leaders, saying: “Leadership should be inspirational, it should have dignity and be rooted in plain common sense.

“The leadership that Patrick and Lorna has provided has been arrogant and abrasive, and it has repelled those who want politicians to listen and respond to other people’s ideas and feelings.”

Mr Yousaf, however, has defended the alliance between his party and the Scottish Greens, saying the two organisations had come together in the “best interests of our country and our planet”.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe earlier this week, he added that the deal allowed the Scottish Government to get legislation passed despite the “toxic environment” at Holyrood.

A Scottish Green spokesperson said: “The Scottish Greens will always put people and planet first, with climate and tackling child poverty and inequality at the heart of our social and environmental focus as has been demonstrated over the past two years.

“That is why the Tories, Labour and their supporters are so desperate to attack the Bute House Agreement, because it delivers the kind of steady government Westminster can only dream of.”