John Swinney hints at another coalition with the Greens after next years Holyrood election

John Swinney has opened the door to the Scottish Greens returning to government despite their first taste of power ending in ‘disaster’.

The First Minister said it would depend on ‘what the election throws up’ next year.

The Scottish Conservatives said it was ‘astonishing’ the SNP leader would even think of it given the ‘calamitous’ results first time round.

Nicola Sturgeon struck the Bute House Agreement in 2021, making Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater the first Green ministers in the UK.

The pro-independence pact was beset by policy flops, including gender recognition reform, the deposit return scheme, and bid to ban fishing in 10 per cent of inshore waters.

Humza Yousaf collapsed the deal last spring after Mr Harvie refused to accept the science behind the Cass Review on gender services for young people.

Mr Swinney has since backed away from many Green policies, including a household boiler ban as part of the drive to Net Zero.

But talking to the Herald on Sunday, the SNP leader refused to rule out a similar power-sharing deal after the 2026 election.

John Swinney has hinted the Greens - Patrick Harvey and Lorna Slater are currently the partys co-leaders - could return to the Scottish Government depending on next years Holyrood election

Nicola Sturgeon welcomed Patrick Harvey and Lorna Slater to the Scottish Government following the Bute House Agreement in 2021

A recent Survation poll suggested the SNP could win 55 MSPs and the Greens ten, giving the two parties a knife-edge majority of Holyrood’s 129 seats.

Mr Swinney said: ‘We’ll see what the election throws up. We just have to see what comes from the election arithmetic. Obviously we want to win the election - to win it outright.’

He added: ‘I’ve been crystal clear since I came into office that I had to get the SNP government back into a position where it commanded the respect of the public, and it was focused on the public’s priorities, and that’s what I’ve been doing. And then we’ve got a record to defend at the 2026 elections, and ambitions to set out to the public.’

Tory MSP Stephen Kerr said: ‘The SNP’s independence-obsessed coalition with their anti-growth Green partners was a disaster from start to finish.

‘It’s astonishing that John Swinney won’t rule out another deal with them.

‘Their calamitous spell in government will be remembered for the botched deposit return scheme, backing Sturgeon’s reckless gender self-ID policy, and blocking new oil and gas projects. This is why voters are sick of nationalist politicians at Holyrood, they’re completely out of touch.

‘Only the Scottish Conservatives are standing up to the cosy left-wing consensus.’

Author JK Rowling yesterday mocked Mr Harvie as less self-aware than a goldfish.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, the MSP accused politicians who are against giving puberty blockers to children of trying to tell doctors ‘what drugs they should prescribe to which patients’ for ‘profoundly ill-judged reasons’.

He then told doctors they should prescribe puberty blockers if there were good medical reasons, adding ‘which there are’.

Ms Rowling wrote on X: ‘I’ve met more self-aware goldfish.’

Appearing on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, Mr Harvie also denied being ‘divisive’ and refused to take any blame for the end of the Bute House deal.

The Scottish Green co-leader said: ‘I think the Greens and myself as a person have always tried to seek out the common ground between political parties, work together, and bring constructive ideas to bear, and I think that’s got a track record of success.’

He added: ‘I hugely regret the fact that Humza Yousaf decided to unilaterally pull the plug on an agreement that had locked in a progressive, pro-independence majority government.’