Talks between SNP and Greens 'at very early stage'

Lorna Slater said talks between the SNP and Greens could run right through the summer recess

Talks over a deal between the Scottish Greens and the SNP are at a very early stage and will take months to complete, Green co-leader Lorna Slater has said.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Wednesday that formal talks had begun over a "co-operation agreement" which could see Green MSPs enter government.

However Ms Slater said an agenda for the talks had not yet been drawn up.

And she said the process could run right through the summer recess until Holyrood returns for the autumn term.

The Lothians MSP told BBC Scotland that it was "very exciting that we have a new kind of politics on the table", but stressed that "we are at the absolute start of the process".

• SNP discussing formal co-operation deal with Greens

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Ms Sturgeon told MSPs on Wednesday that she had held a "series of exploratory discussions" with the pro-independence Greens since the election, and that these would now be formally supported by the civil service in a bid to strike a deal.

It is thought any pact would form something greater than a basic confidence-and-supply arrangement, but fall short of a full coalition.

The first minister said the parties were studying areas where they agree on policy, and said it was "not not inconceivable that a co-operation agreement could lead in future to a Green minister or ministers being part of this government".

Ms Slater told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that no agenda had yet been drawn up, but that possible areas of accord included housing, job creation, renewable energy and tackling the climate emergency.

She said: "The climate crisis is the number one crisis that we are all dealing with and its very exciting that we do have a new kind of politics on the table, of cooperation and consensus building and finding common ground.

"We are hoping to achieve is to create a different kind of working environment in the Scottish Parliament, to prioritise the things that really matter to the Scottish Green Party which is a fair and green recovery from the pandemic, to put practical actions in place to tackle the climate crisis.

"We are the party that has the policies needed to tackle the climate crisis, and we are pleased the government has recognised that and reached out and said lets work on this together, lets take a serious stand on this."

Nicola Sturgeon said the agreement could herald a new way of doing politics at Holyrood

The two parties both campaigned on having a fresh independence referendum during the Holyrood election campaign, although Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly said that dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic is her first priority.

However opposition parties said the prospect of a deal between the two pro-independence parties underlined that the government was chiefly focused on the constitution.

Scottish Conservative MSP Liam Kerr said the Greens had "finally given up on pretending to be a separate party from their nationalist allies", while Labour leader Anas Sarwar said they were "accepting and formalising their coalition of cuts with the SNP".

And Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said the "emerging Green pact is a sign that independence is the overriding priority", adding that the parties had "even swept aside their fundamental differences on oil and gas to smooth the path to a referendum".

'At the starting block'

However, Ms Slater claimed that "the Scottish public are excited about the idea of politicians working together cross-party to tackle the issues that really matter to people" - and said a deal was a long way off yet.

She said: "We are at the absolute start of the process. where we are is the Scottish government and Scottish Green Party are going in with good intentions and optimism and a spirit of co-operation and a genuine desire to do politics differently, we are at the starting block now and we'll have to see where it comes to in a couple of months' time.

"We would hope to have the outline of where possible areas of co-operation would be by the start of summer recess, and then by the time we come back to parliament in the autumn, if we are able to reach an agreement, to have that before the autumn session starts."

Ms Slater also said Green leaders were "absolutely kicking ourselves" after they were pictured breaching Covid-19 regulations in an Edinburgh pub immediately after having talks with Ms Sturgeon at Bute House.

She said it was "definitely a mistake" to have a meeting in a bar "where the three-household limit was not upheld".