Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

EXCLUSIVE: Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater could be ousted from party leader roles by members

Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater joined the government last year.
Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater joined the government last year.

Senior Green politicians Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater could be forced out of their roles under plans by party activists to distance leaders from the SNP government.

The pair became ministers alongside Nicola Sturgeon in August last year after striking a power-sharing agreement with the SNP at Holyrood.

But we can exclusively reveal party members will now be given the opportunity to vote on proposal that would split its leadership from any ministerial roles.

Growing tensions

The bid comes following months of frustrations over Green voices being “silenced” on key issues controlled by the Scottish Government.

It would prohibit any active government minister from holding a “major officer position” within the Scottish Greens.

Any person holding such a position who is then appointed as a government minister would be forced to vacate their party role by the next general meeting.

Scottish Green party co-leader Patrick Harvie.

The motion, which we have seen, states activists hope to “emulate our highly successful sister party in Germany, Alliance90/The Greens, by separating party leadership positions from ministerial offices”.

It adds: “This model allows ministers to focus on the considerable work involved in running government departments.

“The separation of these roles also allows the party’s major officers to openly disagree with the government, where appropriate.

“This gives party members a greater voice on issues of concern, on policies that may be added to the excluded areas of the cooperation agreement and allows party officers to better focus on their constitutional roles.”

Green members to vote

Green members will have the opportunity to vote on the motion on October 13, just days before the party conference in Dundee.

It has been accepted by the standing orders committee so as a constitutional matter will be heard at the party’s annual general meeting.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (centre) welcomes Scottish Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater at Bute House, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, following their Government Ministerial appointments.

A party source pointed to a range of issues where it is felt the power-sharing agreement has lessened the ability of leaders to criticise the Scottish Government.

He said: “A good example would be the SQA results.

“When they came out and it was obvious the attainment gap had widened, there was a feeling that our response was muted to non-existent.

“Similarly with the rent freeze amendment tabled by Mercedes Villalba, I think there was concern among Green members that we seem to have lost our voice when it comes to the housing crisis.”

‘Our voices have gone silent’

The activist added: “We scrapped our support for an energy company in Scotland and now our voice seems to have gone pretty silent on that issue.

“I think there is a general concern that we aren’t talking about the cost of living crisis anywhere near as vociferously as we could be if our leaders were perhaps not ministers.”

Ross Greer MSP

We reported previously on a row between the Greens and the SNP over a deal with Westminster to introduce two new freeports in Scotland.

Finance spokesperson Ross Greer criticised the £52 million agreement as a “corporate giveaway” despite his party being in government with the SNP.

Mr Greer said the Greens “won’t have anything to do” with the freeports.

A Scottish Greens spokesman said: “All motions will be debated on by party members at conference this October, where we are looking forward to welcoming back attendees in person as well as those participating online.”