THE SNP’s ruling body yesterday backed the deal with the Scottish Greens, as experts said the agreement could reinvigorate the Government and the drive towards indyref2.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the endorsement by the party’s national executive committee on Twitter following a “very upbeat meeting”.
She added: “We also agreed a process of member engagement, [including] an online consultative ballot of members in coming week.”
The Greens will also be holding a series of question and answer sessions this week, ahead of members voting on the terms of the deal.
The much-anticipated deal was published on Friday after months of negotiation, with a promise to put two Green MSPs into ministerial office and a 51-page document outlining a shared policy platform.
READ MORE: SNP struck deal with Greens to 'avoid no confidence motions every other week'
The pledges include another vote on Scottish independence, a £500 million just transition fund to move away from oil and gas, a bill to be introduced on the reform of the controversial gender recognition act within a year and a national rent control system which will be implemented by 2025.
The parties have also agreed to disagree on the matter of fee-paying schools and field sports such as hunting and shooting.
The two Green MSPs appointed as ministers will not be bound by collective responsibility – meaning they will not be held accountable – in these areas.
Anthony Salamone, managing director of political analysis firm European Merchants, said the deal – which sits somewhere between a coalition government and a confidence and supply deal – was an “unusual governing arrangement” without precedent in Europe.
He said: “It allows the SNP to present the Scottish Government and the Greens as a new look, which is useful if you have been in power for as long as the SNP have.
“They can lock in Green support in advance for confidence votes. So you wouldn’t see a repeat of, for example, confidence votes in the previous government over John Swinney.
“For the Greens – they are not going into government, but they will have ministers in the Government.”
READ MORE: Indyref2 listed as first priority in SNP-Scottish Greens co-operation deal
But he added: “There are also downsides too – for the SNP it is clear the opposition think the Greens are the weaker link and will focus many of their attacks on the Green positions and try to associate them with the SNP.
“For the Green Party, under this deal the two Green ministers aren’t bound by collective responsibility on the areas that have been excluded.
“But nevertheless if you are part of a government even partially, you normally get associated with everything that government does – whether or not you disagree with it.
Salamone said he did not believe it would make a difference to how the UK Government approaches the issue of an independence referendum.
“To me the stronger argument is to say there is a majority in the Scottish Parliament in favour of a referendum,” he added.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday, Andy Collier, a political commentator who was formerly part of SNP’s media team, also said he believes it will not shift the position of the Tories over indyref2.
But he added the deal, which has committed to hold a referendum on within the next five years, preferably by the end of 2023, pointed to a “hardening up” of the position of the pro-independence parties.
“Clearly the optics will change, there is going to be a real reinvigorated drive to get Westminster to agree,” he said.
“I think there is going to be an awful lot of conflict coming up between Holyrood and Westminster over the coming months on that.”
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