Similarly to how Reform’s agenda has begun to shape the policies of the right-wing and central leaning parties, the Scottish Greens have begun to exert the same magnetic power over the left and centre of Holyrood. In particular, the SNP is reacting to their more left-wing voters turning away from them and considering the Greens in this year’s Scottish Election. A new poll from The Devolved Election Projections suggests that the Greens could have their most successful Scottish election yet and beat Labour in some areas.

John Swinney is consistently reacting to or promoting policies that were initially introduced by the Scottish Green Party. A recent example of this is Swinney’s request to meet with the UK government regarding the US Military’s use of Prestwick Airport as a stop off for planes striking Iran. This comes after the Greens raised this as an issue last month and accused Swinney of “sitting on his hands” during First Ministers’ Questions last week.

The Scottish Greens were also the party that initially proposed the abolishment of the peak rail fares in 2023; however, this policy is now being used in the SNPs campaigning for the upcoming election. Other points of similarity were the issue of the rent freezes, climate and energy policies and free bus travel. 

Iris Duane is the Scottish Green candidate for the redrawn constituency of Glasgow Kelvin and Maryhill. She believes that the government is “claiming credit for successful green policies like free bus travel for under 22s or abolishing peak rail fares, or the most recent consideration of banning US forces from Prestwick.”

Duane believes that “it’s increasingly clear that the Greens have and continue to hold an influence over the Scottish government, even if the SNP pretends that we do not. With more greens in the chamber and rising green support across our country, we will continue to see them adopting some of our policies, in the aim of neutralising our support”. 

“With the Greens now poised to potentially win our first constituency seats in less than 2 months, all of which from the SNP, they can no longer count on being the dominant progressive independence party going forward. The government clearly sees us as their main progressive challengers and seeks to counter us”.

It appears that the main left-wing parties of this election, the SNP and Labour and The Liberal Democrats, are taking notice of the newfound success of the Green party in both England and Scotland and are strategically placing them alongside their policies. However, these parties are lacking the originality of their own left-wing ideas and don’t possess the ability to define their own progressive agenda.

Maddie Watson

She/Her