MSP Maggie Chapman fails to top Green regional list for Holyrood election

Green MSP Maggie Chapman could face a fight to be returned to Holyrood after next year’s “pivotal” Scottish elections after failing to top the party’s list for her region.

Chapman, currently an MSP for the North East, has been placed second on the party’s list, behind activist Guy Ingerson – who stood against SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn in the Aberdeen South seat in last year’s general election.

All six of the party’s other MSPs – Gillian Mackay, Lorna Slater, Patrick Harvie, Ariane Burgess, Mark Ruskell and Ross Greer – have been placed top of their regional lists ahead of the May 2026 ballot.

It comes as the Greens are hoping to top the record result they had at the last Holyrood elections when the party saw eight MSPs voted in at Holyrood – although Alison Johnstone left to take on the role of Presiding Officer soon afterwards.

The Lothian region was the only area to return two Green MSPs on the list in 2021.

Elsewhere on the list, trans activist Ellie Gommersall has been placed second in the Glasgow region.

With list places determined in a ballot of party members, Scottish Green co-leader Slater said she was “delighted” such a “strong group of lead candidates” had been selected who could “deliver real change at Holyrood”.

Slater said the 2026 vote would be “pivotal for the future of Scotland and our planet”, adding that the “Greens have been the only influential left-wing force in the Scottish Parliament for decades”.

She highlighted the party’s record of “delivering free bus travel for young people, scrapping peak rail fares and securing tax reforms to ensure the richest in society pay their fair share to support the services we all rely on, like our NHS”.

Slater continued: “With more Green MSPs, we can continue to push for the climate emergency to be taken seriously by other parties who want to protect corporate profits rather than our planet and to fight back against the toxic climate change denialism from the far-right. Scottish Greens won’t give up on our planet’s future.

“Electing a record number of Scottish Greens is the only way to secure the pro-independence majority in Holyrood and to continue advancing the case to rejoin the European Union. It is a cause that Scottish Green MSPs will continue to make on the doorsteps across the country and in the chamber at Holyrood.”