The new leaders of the Scottish Greens, Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, have promised to campaign for a universal income, free bus travel and higher taxation on the rich after winning a muted election contest.
Greer and Mackay, who were both backbench MSPs at Holyrood, were appointed co-leaders of the Scottish Greens after a noticeably low turnout of 12.7% – only 950 of the party’s 7,500 members voted after a low-key summer campaign.
They admitted the turnout was worrying. Greer said he had long believed the party had lost its energy, and significant changes to its structures, internal elections and campaign apparatus were needed.
“We’ve allowed ourselves to become a radical bureaucracy rather than a radical democracy,” he said. “And we need to see serious internal reform. We need to reform as a party if we are to grow as a party.”
Mackay denied it was embarrassing. “I think it is a concern. And I think that’s why we do need to find out why [turnout was so low],” she said.
The leadership contest took on added significance as it was called after Patrick Harvie, who had been the UK’s longest-serving party leader, announced earlier this year he was standing down after 17 years in the post owing to ill health.
Harvie had led the Scottish Greens into government, the first time in the UK the Greens had shared power, in a groundbreaking partnership agreement with Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National party in government in 2021.
His former leadership partner, Lorna Slater, who had stood again to be co-leader and was widely expected to win, was narrowly defeated by Greer in the second round of voting by 13 votes.
In a result that implied the party’s active members wanted a clear change of direction at Holyrood, Mackay won in the first round of voting with 34% of the vote. She has won plaudits for introducing the Scottish law on buffer zones around abortion clinics and for her campaigns on single-use vapes and free bus travel for under-22s.
The vote foreshadows the result of the contest to elect two new co-leaders for the Greens in England and Wales. The result is due to be announced on 2 September after a contest which, unlike the relatively harmonious campaign in Scotland, has been energised by open disputes about the party’s direction and purpose.
Greer and Mackay said they backed Zack Polanski, the “eco-populist” widely tipped to become leader in England and Wales during a party hustings last month.
Speaking after the Scottish leadership announcement in Edinburgh, Mackay, who will remain on maternity leave until January before returning to Holyrood, said she favoured far more vigorous campaigning on NHS reform, a four-day week and a universal basic income.
“We need to make sure that work allows people to thrive rather than survive,” she said. Speaking to reporters after the result was announced, she was unsure what a universal income would cost – some estimates suggest it could cost at least £7bn.
Greer, who was an architect of the Greens’ power-sharing agreement with the SNP and has a close working relationship with the first minister, John Swinney, said Scotland’s tax system was “stacked in favour of the super rich”.
Scotland already has higher income tax rates for higher earners than the rest of the UK, partly Scottish Green budget deals with the SNP. Scotland needed to reform council by making it far more progressive, and remove property tax breaks for the rich, Greer said.
