Nicola Sturgeon announces historic SNP-Greens cooperation deal

Nicola Sturgeon has announced a groundbreaking cooperation agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens, creating a majority in the Scottish Parliament for a transformative agenda, as Scotland begins to rebuild after the pandemic – and a cast-iron mandate for giving the people of Scotland the choice of independence, on a massive 71-57 majority.

You can read the full shared policy programme, Working Together To Build A Greener, Fairer, Independent Scotland, here.

Building a new era of cooperative politics

The SNP-Green cooperative agreement is the first of its kind in both Scottish and UK politics, but it’s not unsual in countries across Europe or the rest of the world. Both parties will be asked to approve and endorse this historic deal over the coming days and weeks.

The challenges facing Scotland have rarely been greater – the climate emergency; recovery from a global pandemic; an assault by the UK government on the powers of our Parliament; and the consequences to our economy, society and place in the world of a disastrous Brexit that Scotland did not vote for.

This agreement is about doing government different – putting cooperation and collaboration in place of division and acrimony.

Agreement makes it impossible for UK government to deny referendum

The Scottish elections delivered an iron-clad mandate for the Scottish Government to hold a referendum on independence, with pro-independence parties securing the largest ever amount of seats and over 50% of the party list vote.

This agreement reaffirms the Scottish people’s decision and ensures that there will a referendum on independence when the immediate crisis of Covid has passed and we begin to rebuild Scotland for the future.

What else is in the agreement?

The cooperation agreement ensures our party will work with the Greens to provide effective and responsible leadership for the people who live in Scotland, and for future generations.

The agreement sets out a new and transformative vision for Scotland, as we rebuild from the Covid pandemic and look to how we deal with the climate emergency and build a fairer and greener Scotland.

It also includes commitments to:

    • Increase investment in active travel and public transport, with the aim of providing a realistic and affordable alternatives to car use
    • Provide more support for the marine renewables and offshore wind sectors, ensuring Scotland remains a world-leader in green energy production
    • A ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund for the north east and Moray, as we build Scotland’s future as Europe’s renewable energy powerhouse
    • Increasing the level of the Scottish Child Payment to £20 within this parliamentary term, lifting thousands of young people and families out of poverty
    • Enhancing tenants’ rights, delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and bringing vacant and derelict land and property back into productive use
    • Investing at least £1.8bn over this parliamentary session in energy efficiency and renewable heating
    • Introducing a real Living Wage requirement for employees of all public sector grants
    • Bring forward legislation to implement a ban on conversion therapy in Scotland
    • And establish a guarantee of access for students, in school, to the mental health and wellbeing support

Again, you can read the full shared policy programme, Working Together To Build A Greener, Fairer, Independent Scotland, here.