The Scottish Greens are celebrating one other membership surge because the occasion seeks to win its first ever constituency seat at subsequent 12 months’s Holyrood election.
Final week, the occasion introduced 800 new members had joined previously six months – representing a ten% improve.
Now, greater than 400 folks have signed up within the final week alone.
The membership now stands at 8,680 – the best stage since 2016 – and is greater than the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Liberal Democrats.
MSP Gillian Mackay, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, stated: “The surge in our membership exhibits that there’s a clear demand for eco-socialist insurance policies that make folks’s on a regular basis lives higher.
“That is what the Scottish Greens are offering.
“Final weekend we had our largest occasion convention for a decade, and I used to be delighted by what number of new faces there have been within the corridor.
“There is an enthusiasm for bold ideas and policies and that is exactly what we will be working to deliver between now and next May.”
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Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, co-leaders of the Scottish Greens. Pic: PA
The Scottish Greens returned eight MSPs within the 2021 Scottish parliament election, with this being their finest consequence to this point.
The occasion is now aiming to select up extra seats in 2026 – and can be competing for constituency in addition to regional record votes.
As a part of the power-sharing Bute Home Settlement with the SNP, the Scottish Greens championed free bus journey for under-22s, was on the forefront of the scrapping of peak ScotRail fares, and helped safe a nationwide fund to put in writing off tens of millions of kilos’ value of faculty meal debt.
Nonetheless, the occasion was criticised for the Scottish authorities’s doomed deposit return scheme (DRS).
Ms Mackay and Ross Greer have been elected new co-leaders of the Scottish Greens in August. The pair changed Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater.
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Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie, former co-leaders of the Scottish Greens. Pic: PA
The occasion south of the border lately boasted a membership of greater than 126,000 folks, marking an 80% surge since Zack Polanski took over as chief final month.
Sir John, a political scientist and professor of politics on the College of Strathclyde, stated of the will increase: “I simply presume it’s largely the product of much the same phenomenon, which is disenchantment with government amongst those on the left – the folk who are not concerned about immigration etc.
“The individuals who assist the Greens are usually somewhat additional to the left. They’re actually very a lot socially liberal.”
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Inexperienced Get together chief Zack Polanski. Pic: PA
Sir John stated Ms Mackay and Mr Greer are but to make a lot of an impression on the general public.
He added: “Polanski has had a very good start. He’s got charisma, he’s got presence, he is very self-assured.
“I am trying ahead to the leaders’ debate which has Polansky versus (Nigel) Farage.
“They’re both all the things that Keir Starmer, John Swinney, Ed Davey, Kemi Badenoch and Russell Findlay are not.”
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‘Farage has linked with folks’s anger and concern’
Sir John famous that the Scottish Greens – which is distinct from the Inexperienced Get together – is just not doing as properly within the Scottish polls in comparison with the Inexperienced Get together throughout the remainder of the UK because it faces stiff competitors from the SNP.
Nonetheless, whereas the Scottish Greens are having fun with a growth in membership, the SNP has misplaced 1000’s of supporters.
Latest monetary accounts confirmed SNP membership fell to 56,011 as of 1 June 2025, down from 64,525 on the identical time final 12 months and fewer than half of its peak of round 125,000 in 2019.
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Professor Sir John Curtice after receiving his knighthood in 2018. Pic: PA
Sir John stated the SNP can be “worried” by the very fact supporters “have gone to the Greens, particularly on the constituency vote”.
He added: “So, you’ve got about 10% of current Yes (independence) supporters who say they’re going to vote for the Greens on the constituency vote.
“We’ll wait and see how a lot the Greens struggle the constituency seats as a result of they do not normally struggle greater than the occasional one.”
Regardless of First Minister John Swinney’s newest plan for one more independence referendum, Sir John believes the SNP will want a “great deal of luck” to win a majority at Holyrood.
Earlier on Friday, three Scottish Inexperienced councillors in Glasgow and one of many occasion’s prime candidates within the metropolis defected to Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Get together.
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Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. Pic: PA
Sir John stated: “Certainly, one of the things that will potentially make life more difficult for the Greens is if indeed the Corbyn project does take off.”
The professor added: “But we’re not there yet at the moment.”
