SNP-Greens deal will remain until 2026 - Ian Blackford

Humza Yousaf with Scottish Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater

The SNP's former Westminster leader has said the party's pact with the Scottish Greens will remain in place until 2026.

Ian Blackford said the Bute House Agreement "remains the right thing to do" while speaking at a live talk show at the Edinburgh Fringe on Sunday.

Some figures in the SNP have called for a fresh vote on the alliance, chiefly former minister Fergus Ewing.

Scottish Greens co-leader and minister Patrick Harvie said his party being in government "scares some people".

The Bute House Agreement, which was signed in 2021, is used as the framework for the coalition government.

However the two parties have clashed on key issues like gender reform as well as policies in agreement, such as Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs).

Ian Blackford was the SNP's Westminster leader until December last year

Over the weekend there was speculation about the future of the coalition in the press. Former Scottish Greens leader Robin Harper told the Sunday Mail it was "highly likely it will not last".

He also said the Bute House Agreement would result in both the SNP and Greens losing votes.

Fergus Ewing, who previously called the Greens "fringe extremists", wrote a piece for the Herald on Sunday saying they should "never be anywhere near government".

Reiterating his call for a vote on the deal, the MSP for Inverness and Nairn said: "The Greens are seen as primarily responsible for a whole series of policy disasters over the last two years.

"Its time to end this dreadful deal before it brings us down."

MSP Fergus Ewing has called for an end to the Bute House Agreement

But while speaking to an audience at the Pleasance EICC, Mr Blackford said: "The Bute House Agreement was the right thing to do, and it will remain in place over the lifetime of this parliament."

He also dismissed the Alba party's idea of pro-independence parties coming together as a United Scotland.

Patrick Harvie also responded to the criticism in The National newspaper, saying the deal is the "biggest asset in ensuring the policies of pro-independence parties are furthered, and ultimately in delivering independence itself".

What do voters think?

Sir John Curtice, polling expert and professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said a majority of SNP voters are in favour of the agreement.

He told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "The truth is of course a lot of the people who say it's bad for Scotland are people who didn't vote for the SNP or for the Greens back in the Scottish parliament election.

"If we focus particularly on the folk who voted for the SNP, well here the polling suggests that somewhere between a half of and two-thirds of people who voted for the SNP in 2021 are in favour of the arrangement.

"It seems to be much less than it was amongst members when it was originally negotiated. But at the moment at least we couldn't say the majority of SNP voters were opposed."

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He also said it is not clear if the arrangement is doing the Green party any harm at all.

He added: "If you take the average of the last half dozen polls of how people said that they would vote for the regional vote of the Scottish parliament election, the greens are running at 11%.

"That's three points up on what they got in May 2021 and the polls have been pretty consistently of that order ever since the arrangement was brokered back in August 2021."

He added that he thinks the arrangement is probably not the source of the SNP's current "political difficulties".

Sir John said: "SNP support slipped a bit before Nicola sturgeon resigned but the primary period during which the SNP support fell was during the leadership contest and with the election of Humza Yousaf.

"I think the SNP have to ask themselves - one, do we necessarily have somebody who is going to be capable of leading us effectively in future, but secondly, are the divisions that are now emerging perhaps also not doing us much good?"

First Minister Humza Yousaf has previously defended the agreement, saying that it brought stability to the government and was backed by 95% of the SNP's membership.

But his former SNP leadership challenger, Kate Forbes, has backed a "discussion" with party members on the government's deal with the Greens.