The current co-leaders of the Scottish Greens Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater are likely to stand unopposed in the party’s biennial leadership contest with grassroots members citing their election success as a reason to continue backing them.
The Scottish Greens must really enjoy elections. Members vote every two years in an internal contest for two co-leaders – at least one of whom must be a woman – to ensure those in power retain the backing of the party faithful.
The incumbents, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, were selected in 2019 and are all but certain to be anointed again at the end of the month, as nobody has so far emerged to challenge them.
And why would they? The Harvie-Slater ticket delivered the Greens their biggest Holyrood election wins to date.
In a statement on social media, Mr Harvie and Ms Slater say they are both standing to be re-elected and highlight their success in getting “our best election result ever”.
Eight Green MSPs were elected to Holyrood in May, and although Alison Johnstone gave up her party affiliation to take up the position of presiding officer, this is the highest number of MSPs the party has ever had.
In their joint statement, the pair say: “We will continue to work with our members to put social and environmental justice at the heart of our politics and to build a fairer, greener Scotland.
The @scottishgreens internal elections are happening just now and @patrickharvie and I are re-standing for election as Co-Leaders.
As Co-Leaders for the last two years we are proud to have worked with our members to achieve our best election result ever. pic.twitter.com/ozWYhruytr
— Lorna Slater (@lornaslater) July 14, 2021
“We will build a culture within the party based on trust, cooperation, consensus-building, kindness, good communication, integrity and professionalism.”
They add they will spend the next two years advocating for marginalised communities, and say they want to focus on getting more women and other under-represented groups elected to Holyrood.
Party members “happy to endorse them” due to popularity
Tanya Jones from Dundee and Angus Greens says she will be pleased to see Mr Harvie and Ms Slater re-elected as party co-leaders because of their success in the recent parliament election.
She said: “We are very happy with the work they have done.
“They have really inspired people and given a really good message about what the Scottish Greens stand for so we are happy to endorse them and look forward to their leadership for another term.
“We like to make sure people are not sitting in their position for a long time and to make sure everyone is happy with things, but there is such widespread recognition of the fantastic job they have done.
“Nobody thinks they can do a better job.”
She adds: “It is really exciting having so many new Green MSPs, particularly now we have a Green MSP for the North East region with Maggie Chapman – that is very exciting for Dundee, and the whole region.”
The internal party election has now begun, and will close on July 28.