Greens and SNP have ‘mandate to deliver’ second independence vote, Greer insists

The SNP and the Greens have a joint “mandate to deliver” a second vote on independence, Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer has declared, insisting that the Prime Minister – or his successor – must “respect” this.

Mr Greer spoke out as Sir Keir Starmer faces increasing pressure as he tries to remain in Downing Street, in the wake of poor election results for Labour across the UK.

In Scotland, Labour returned just 17 MSPs – well behind the 58 won by John Swinney’s SNP, and their lowest number at any devolved election.

That came as the party lost swathes of councillors across England, while Labour also lost control of the Senedd in Wales for the first time ever in the history of devolution.

The Scottish Parliament meanwhile has its highest ever number of MSPs who support independence, with 73 MSPs from the SNP and Scottish Greens returned.

Mr Greer’s party picked up a record 15 MSPs in Thursday’s election, with “incredible” results seeing them win their first ever constituency MSPs.

Speaking in the aftermath of the results, Mr Greer stressed that votes for both his party and Mr Swinney’s formed a mandate from voters for another independence ballot.

Telling BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme that “independence is urgently needed”, Mr Greer said that his party “went into this election committed to achieving Scottish independence, and full membership of the European Union”.

He added: “If parties win a majority in parliament and they have manifestos commitment then they have a mandate to deliver on those manifesto commitments.”
He stressed the Greens wanted to “give the people of this country a choice over their future”, adding they were not going to “unilaterally declare independence when we all get back to Parliament on Monday”.

But the Scottish Green co-leader was clear that the Prime Minister – or his successor if he leaves Downing Street – must “respect” the votes of people in Scotland.

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Mr Greer said: “I want the next prime minister – because let’s be honest, it is not going to be Keir Starmer for very long – the next prime minister needs to respect the people of Scotland have made this choice.

“We are a democratic country, people should be able to get what they want at an election.

A majority of the Parliament are from pro-independence parties and there is an urgent need for this.”
His comments came as he added that Scots had backed the Greens to “stand up to bullies” in Reform UK.

He hit out at Nigel Farage’s party after it promised to site detention centres for illegal immigrants in constituencies that voted Green if Reform wins the next Westminster election.

Saying Reform had “explicitly threatened voters” with this, Mr Greer added: “A lot of people basically thought: ‘How dare you threaten me like that?

I am going to vote for the Greens because they are the party standing up to your hate.'”
With two the Glasgow Southside and Edinburgh Central constituencies both having now returned Green MSPs, he said that people in these areas “wanted the whole country to see you can stand up to bullies”.