Scottish Greens 'increasingly confident' they can beat Labour in next year's Holyrood elections

The Scottish Greens have said they are “increasingly confident” that they can beat the Labour party in Scotland.

Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer said that with “record polling”, his party will become “the main force of progressive policies and a progressive vision”.

Speaking ahead of the Greens’ conference in Edinburgh on Saturday, Greer said: “I’m confident we’ll have a Green MSP for every part of Scotland – all eight regions.

“And the way the polls are going at the moment, we’re increasingly confident that we will be able to beat the Labour Party in Scotland.”

His comments come less than a day after the Scottish Greens announced that membership is on track to reach a new record high by next year’s Holyrood election.

The Greens returned their best result to date in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, winning eight MSP seats.

But with membership having grown by 800 in the past six months to stand at 8,279 – the highest total since 2016 – the Greens believe they can do better next time round.

“It’s great to be going into a sold-out conference with polling at a record high for our party, with a big surge in our party membership,” Greer said.

“I think the reason for that is quite simple: we’re trying to bring hope back to Scottish politics, and hope is what a lot of people want right now. They want to believe this can be a country that works better for them, their families, and their community.”

Mackay emphasised that she wants “every person in Scotland to be represented by a Green MSP” after May’s election.

She added that the party will be looking to get more than one MSP returned in some regions.

“As a party of just seven MPs, we really punched above our weight this session on a whole host of issues,” Mackay said.

“It shows the hard work we’ve put in and how much more we could do if we had double that number of MSPs or more, and that’s why we want people to put their trust in us at next year’s election.”