THE SNP is being pushed further to the right by “dinosaur” Fergus Ewing, according to Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie.
In a wide-ranging interview with The National, Harvie was asked whether he was concerned about the SNP’s commitment to achieving climate targets now the Greens were out of government.
It comes after anger from within the Scottish Greens over the scrapping of the Scottish Government’s 2030 climate goals led to members rallying for an extraordinary general meeting to discuss the future of the Bute House Agreement.
Just days later Humza Yousaf terminated the agreement himself.
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“It’s a choice and people are pushing them to make the wrong choice,” said Harvie.
“You’ve got everyone’s favourite dinosaur, Mr [Fergus] Ewing, who described the heating buildings programme as Patrick Harvie’s madcap boiler ban, right?
“He doesn’t get to call it Patrick Harvie’s anymore. It’s still government policy. It is still essential.”
Ewing had been a long-term critic of the Bute House Agreement and the policies aimed at protecting Scotland’s environment spearheaded by former ministers Harvie and Lorna Slater.
As well as rebelling and voting with in favour of a vote of no confidence brought by the Conservatives against Slater following the collapse of the Deposit Return Scheme, Ewing also described the Greens as “wine bar revolutionaries” and claimed winding down oil and gas production in the North Sea amounted to “economic masochism”.
He also ripped up the Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) legislation in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament before it was ultimately abandoned by the Scottish Government following a backlash from some fishing and coastal communities.
Harvie added that ministers in needed to be aware of forces attempting to sway their opinion and water down environmental policies.
Specifically, he mentioned the organisation Homes for Scotland, which represents the housebuilding sector.
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Following the scrapping of the 2030 climate targets, Homes for Scotland also called for the Scottish Government’s work on heating buildings to be slowed down.
“That would be an utterly perverse decision,” said Harvie.
“Yet some very powerful lobbyists are out there trying to push the Government in the wrong direction”.
Read the full interview with Patrick Harvie in this weekend’s The Sunday National
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