The SNP-Green deal is having a “corrosive” impact on the party, a former north-east warns as new opinion polling shows declining support for the coalition at Holyrood.
Eilidh Whiteford, who was the SNP MP for Banff and Buchan for seven years, said the party’s leadership has to get a grip.
She was commenting on new polling from Survation suggesting 40 per cent of people oppose the power-sharing arrangement struck by Nicola Sturgeon. The deal puts two Green MSPs in the SNP-led Scottish Government.
The last poll in May showed 37 per cent opposed it.
Crucially, the share of SNP voters who oppose the deal increased from 21 per cent to nearly a quarter, according to Survation’s findings.
The poll, commissioned by True North, suggests fewer than half of SNP voters at the last general election said they support the deal. The rest were not sure either way.
Ms Whiteford, now an advisor with True North, claimed the pact is out of touch with mainstream opinion beyond urban communities and has a “corrosive” impact on voters.
At a briefing about the poll on Wednesday, Ms Whiteford said: “It’s worrying that the Green deal is supported by less than half of SNP supporters.”
She added: “It’s very concerning for the SNP.
“They need to get a grip of this.”
She also claimed the “tail is wagging the dog” when it comes to the minority Green party influencing SNP policy.
Backing for Fergus Ewing
Ms Whiteford, an MP from 2010 to 2017, used to speak for the party at Westminster on fishing, rural affairs and food issues.
She said SNP veteran Fergus Ewing – a vocal opponent of the party’s Green deal – reflects popular opinion in rural Scotland.
Mr Ewing and Green co-convener Patrick Harvie have publicly criticised each other on several occassions.
Mr Harvie recently claimed his Inverness and Nairn MSP rival belongs to a generation that hasn’t moved on.
‘Wine bar pseudo-intellectuals’
Mr Ewing memorably branded Greens as “wine bar pseudo-intellectuals” in an outburst in parliament.
A Green party spokesman defended the deal, formally known as the Bute House Agreement.
“By working constructively we are delivering on longstanding Green commitments, including record support for walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure, free bus travel for young people, with the scrapping of peak rail fares from October, and investment in a just transition to renewable energy,” he said.
“We are working for people, with the biggest expansion of the living wage since devolution and the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment to £25 a week, supporting many of the most vulnerable families.”
The SNP’s Westminster depute leader, Mhairi Black, said: “We are pleased that another poll continues to show the SNP as Scotland’s leading party, but we take nothing for granted and will continue to work hard to earn people’s trust.”
Survation polled 1,022 people aged over 16 in Scotland between August 15 and 18.
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