THE Scottish Greens are to contest more than 20 seats at next month’s General Election, official lists reveal.

The period for registering candidates ended last night.

The final Green lists ends speculation about where the party will run.

Last month The National revealed how the party had selected candidates in 16 of the country’s 59 seats – and only one held by a Tory.

Yesterday’s party list confirms that, with financial services specialist Bryan Quinn set to challenge Tory Stephen Kerr in Stirling, where the SNP’s Alyn Smith will also be on the ballot paper.

While campaigning there will be fierce as rivals attempt to wipe out Kerr’s 148-vote majority, no Green rosettes will be seen in other Tory-held areas like Moray, Dumfries and Galloway or Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale in a move which may benefit the SNP.

Both parties back a second independence referendum and remaining in the European Union.

However, no formal pact has been formed.

Last night Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater commented: “I’m delighted that our local branches have decided to contest seats across Scotland, and against every party who lacks a clear plan to tackle the climate emergency. I’m also proud that we have had brave and capable women coming forward to stand to make our list perfectly gender balanced.

“We are electing MPs that could sit for half the time climate science tells us we have left to address the climate emergency, yet the SNP, Labour, LibDems and Conservatives all commit to extracting oil and gas beyond 2050. That is simply incompatible with that timescale. That’s why the clearest way voters can demand climate action at this election is to vote Scottish Green.”

Livingston candidate Cameron Glasgow, who has just turned 19, is said by the party to be the youngest candidate in Scotland. He said: “I’m proud to be standing for the Scottish Greens in this critically important election.

Independence for Scotland and opposing Brexit are both things I’m passionate about, but this is also the first election since UN scientists gave us a decade to turn things round on the climate emergency. It’s an issue we can’t afford to get side-lined in the debate, and one which people on the doorstep are raising too.

“It is the younger generations who will grow up during the climate breakdown and have to deal with problems left by the politicians of today. It’s our future.”

Meanwhile, the SNP’s Ian Blackford was positive about his party’s 59-strong pool of candidates.

They include members of “the 56” who lost their seats in 2017, including Richard Arkless, who is standing for reelection in Dumfries and Galloway, and Margaret Ferrier, who aims to win back Rutherglen and Hamilton West. Kirsten Oswald will seek reelection in East Renfrewshire, while Calum Kerr will do the same in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.

Blackford, the candidate for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, said: “Voting for the SNP offers an escape route for Scotland away from this Westminster mess – the damage of Brexit, and austerity. Only with a strong group of SNP MPs at Westminster, can we call a halt to the Tories’ plan to sell off our NHS in a Trump trade deal.

“We have seen in the last parliament that the absence of a so-called official opposition meant that only the SNP effectively challenged the Tories. In this election in Scotland, the only way to escape Brexit is by voting SNP.

“On December 12th, people across Scotland face a clear choice between the continued chaos of the Westminster parties, or to put Scotland’s future into Scotland’s hands, instead of Boris Johnson’s.”