SCOTTISH Greens co-leader Lorna Slater has said it is “hard to imagine” who is going to support the SNP’s upcoming Budget.
It is due to be delivered on December 4 and will provide more detail on the Programme for Government announced by John Swinney earlier this week.
The Scottish Greens have supported every budget since 2016 although the Scottish Government has faced criticism for rolling back on its universal free school meals pledge, scrapping free bus travel for asylum seekers and announcing £500 million worth of cuts.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland’s Sunday Show, Slater said “it doesn’t look like they (the SNP) want our votes” although the Scottish Government said it was confident “common ground” could be found.
She explained: "It's hard to imagine who is going to sign up to this Budget. The SNP now are in a difficult place."
Slater added: “We worked really hard within government to make sure there was funding for nature restoration, things like Zero Waste Scotland, all the net zero policies – transportation, active travel.
“Greens worked hard to make sure all of our core priorities were funded and we had to make difficult decisions for that to be the case.
“The SNP have now rolled back on all of that. If they wanted Green votes, I think they would have signalled that more strongly.”
She added that the SNP are in a “difficult place” and that “as soon as the Greens are out of the room, the SNP backtrack on everything”.
Asked about the possibility of a snap election, Slater commented: “Well, certainly the Greens are polling very well at the moment.
“We have a lot less to lose from a snap election than the SNP do.”
Scottish Government response
Also appearing on the show was Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee, (below) who told the programme there was “a lot of politics” behind Slater’s comments.
“You have to remember this happens every year,” he said.
“We had the Greens in government for a short time, but for most of the last 17 years, this has been an annual process.
“The Scottish Government works with other parties, in most cases to find common ground and we’ve managed to get agreements from most of the parties at various times.”
He said the Scottish Government is focused on the First Minister’s four missions – which include “growing the economy, providing excellent public services, tackling climate change and the move towards net zero and tackling child poverty”.
It comes as the Scottish Tories said they will use parliamentary business slots to force a vote on reversing the decision on school meals.
