ONE of the Scottish independence movement’s leading thinkers has accused the Scottish Greens of doing “enormous damage to the SNP”.

Jim Sillars, who was the SNP’s former deputy leader and took Glasgow Govan for the party in 1988 also fiercely criticised the two Green MSPs who hold ministerial positions in Humza Yousaf’s cabinet.

Mr Sillars said: “Patrick Harvie lives in a make-believe world of his own invention and I think Lorna Slater is wired to the moon. To some extent you can say that the Greens are driving the SNP Government’s policy.”

In a wide-ranging, two-part interview starting in today’s Herald, Mr Sillars also expressed his concerns about the controversial Hate Crime legislation and said that Humza Yousaf and his cabinet “are no longer accepted as credible” as leaders of the movement for Scottish independence.

The Herald: Patrick Harvie, Humza Yousaf and Lorna SlaterPatrick Harvie, Humza Yousaf and Lorna Slater (Image: PA)

He criticised Mr Yousaf and his successor, Nicola Sturgeon for “a lack of political judgment” in handing ministerial roles to the Scottish Greens as the price for safeguarding a Yes majority in Holyrood.

“Nicola was short of one for a majority. If she’d asked people with a degree of experience she’d have been told not to worry. You have four opposition parties. The only thing you need to worry about is getting your budget through because you have huge executive power. It’s a matter of bargaining with all four parties. You’ll get at least one of them to ensure the budget goes through.

“You don’t need to put yourself in the back pocket of the Greens. The damage has been enormous because basically Patrick Harvie’s ideas represent a tiny minority and in real working-class areas their support is minuscule. Yet, the SNP is hitched to their bandwagon.”

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW

SNP are damaging independence cause

Mr Sillars also said the SNP now lacked intellectual rigour and criticised Mr Yousaf for his comments at the party’s Campaign Council in Perth last month in which the First Minister pledged to rid Scotland of “Tory values”.

“This is crazy stuff,” said Mr Sillars, “Everyone knows what the SNP’s big problem is: it’s Labour: it’s not the Tories. We will have to win Tory Unionist votes for independence. But we’re saying to 20% of the population that you don’t think they’re entitled to representation. What kind of Scotland do they think you’re contemplating?

“Nicola Sturgeon has also said that she ‘detests Tories’. I disagree with Tories, but I don’t detest them.”