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IN 2024, I vividly remember the raw emotion that followed Humza Yousaf’s ending of the Bute House Agreement with the Greens that was set up by Nicola Sturgeon.
Now co-leader Gillian Mackay was in tears on the radio while Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, who led the party at the time, were visibly furious.
It’s not a saga anyone involved with the party is going to forget in a hurry and it seems the Greens are now referring to Sturgeon’s tenure increasingly as a time when the SNP was under stronger leadership and heading down a more favourable path.
Sturgeon herself also came out last year to say that Yousaf ending the Greens deal was “catastrophic” and “totally the wrong thing to do”.
Last week, Mackay took a swipe at the “disappointing” Programme for Government by saying Sturgeon “wouldn’t have signed off” on it.
It was a brutal put down to once again suggest the SNP are drifting away from their former leader’s views and agenda and opening a chasm between them and the Greens.
It was not the first time the Greens had brought up Sturgeon since the election in May and it’s becoming clear that targeting former SNP voters who aligned closely with her and are disillusioned with the current direction is a leading priority of theirs.
Glasgow university energy historian Ewan Gibbs shared the clip of Mackay on Twitter/X last week and said: “Can only assume the Greens have pinpointed a section of (ex) SNP voters who they can win by posing as the party of continuity Sturgeon-ism. This message was hammered home in my constituency – Glasgow Southside – which is Sturgeon's former seat at the recent Holyrood election too.”
Can only assume the Greens have pinpointed a section of (ex) SNP voters who they can win by posing as the party of continuity Sturgeon-ism. This message was hammered home in my constituency - Glasgow Southside - which is Sturgeon's former seat at the recent Holyrood election too. https://t.co/x0Z201umdr
— Ewan Gibbs (@ewangibbs) September 2, 2026
After the party took Sturgeon’s seat as Holly Bruce celebrated victory in Glasgow Southside in May, it said Sturgeon would be “welcome” in the Greens after the former first minister chastised the SNP’s election campaign in a new chapter of her memoir.
Mackay also said on BBC’s Scotcast that Sturgeon was her favourite first minister and spoke of her “significance” in a column for The National as a “huge inspiration to young women”.
They have referenced her stance on oil and gas multiple times as one which aligned much more closely with the Greens than the one the SNP seems to be taking now.
Mackay wrote in her column: “When she became the first SNP leader to oppose new oil and gas drilling, she set an important precedent at a time when the climate crisis demanded political courage.
“Now we see an SNP Government hedging its bets by trying to squeeze more life from a finite oil and gas industry, despite the science and despite Scotland’s enormous opportunity to lead the renewables revolution.”
You rarely see or hear much bitterness from the Greens when you speak to them about the ending of the Bute House Agreement , but it looks like any remaining pent-up emotion over the fallout – of which there is bound to be some – is now being productively channelled into gaining new supporters who long for the days of Sturgeon.
It may be the case the Greens can forgive, but they won’t ever forget.
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