NATALIE Bennett yesterday pledged to “turn the Green surge into seats” across the UK as she joined the campaign trail in Scotland.
Bennett, who leads the Green Party of England and Wales, joined Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie in Paisley yesterday as his team works to convert record membership into a record number of MSPs.
The Scottish Greens are now more than 9,000 strong following a post-referendum boost in sign-ups, while Bennett’s party has grown to around 63,000.
More than 1.1 million Green votes were cast at the 2015 general election, marking a massive jump from the 285,000 received in 2010.
However, this amounted to just one MP in England and none in Scotland.
Both Harvie and Bennett believe this is their moment to become major players in Holyrood, at the Welsh Assembly and in England’s councils.
Meeting Renfrewshire activists, Bennett said she was “inspired” by the Holyrood campaign, telling The National: “We want the Scottish Green Party to do well and we believe they have a great opportunity here. It shows how different politics are in Scotland with a reasonably fair electoral system. It’s really inspiring, the level of enthusiasm and energy in this campaign.
“This is the year we are aiming to turn the Green surge into seats.”
She added: “The Green Party won more than a million votes at last year’s General Election but because of the first past the post electoral system, this translated into just one seat.
“This year’s elections in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London, all with a form of proportional representation, gives voters the opportunity to realistically elect politicians who will commit to Holyrood using its significant powers to take radical action on rent controls, to scrap the unfair council tax, to ban fracking and to resist Tory austerity with ambitious and progressive tax proposals.”
However, despite growing popularity, the Scottish Greens have chosen to contest few constituency seats, focusing instead on the regional list.
Harvie is confident this strategy will lead to the election of the largest ever group of Green MSPs, topping the previous record of seven and helping to “push the Scottish Government beyond its comfort zone” on areas including fracking and welfare.
He said: “We have had an incredible surge in membership. It takes a while for a new branch with a lot of new members to get confidence to stand.
“I’d love it if we had Green MSPs in every region. There are some we can get more than one – we had two in the Lothians before, we could get two in Glasgow.”
Candidate Ross Greer, who aims to win in the West of Scotland and become the country’s youngest MSP at 21, added: “The important thing is every voter in Scotland has the opportunity to vote Green.
“The referendum campaign was all about vision, but it didn’t have a particularly environmental edge. People who joined us off the back of the referendum weren’t joining because of a single issue, they saw two years of Green politics and they liked what they saw.”
Bennett went on: “Unlike some other parties, voters know what they are going to get when they vote Green. They know what our policies are on issues like fracking, opposition to nuclear weapons and Nato.
“We are part of a global movement.”
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