Vote for candidates who care about climate, urge Scottish Greens

Green voters should only back election candidates who accept that urgent action on climate is needed, the leader of the Scottish Green party has said.

Patrick Harvie, the party’s co-convenor, said green voters should prioritise radical action on climate, giving that equal or greater weight than Brexit or Scottish independence, by politely “rattling the cages” of their local candidates.

“We cannot afford for this to be an election where climate is seen somewhere way down the list of priorities,” he told the Guardian. “We need to demand climate action. The way to do that is to vote Green and, if you don’t have a Green candidate, demand that climate action from others.”

The next UK government was likely to be in power for five years, half the 10-year period in which climate scientists argue that urgent action is needed to prevent runaway climate change, he said. Yet no mainstream party had a sufficiently radical or ambitious strategy on climate.

“Hold them to account for what they have said, about fossil fuel subsidies, tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, aviation expansion whether at Heathrow or anywhere else,” he said. “Are they a candidate willing to challenge their own party to move further, faster and more radically on this agenda?”

It was wrong, for those reasons, for broadcasters to ignore Green leaders in televised election debates, he said. “I don’t think the world can afford for the next five years a government that has been elected without any debate on climate change,” he said.

Harvie’s party, which has six MSPs at Holyrood – one more than the Liberal Democrats – is standing 22 candidates at the general election, chiefly in seats across the most populated areas of the central belt.

The Scottish Greens won 8.2% of the vote in May’s European election, with nearly 130,000 votes, but are polling at about 4% for the general election. They have little chance of winning a Commons seat but have not followed the Greens in England and Wales, which is a separate party, by standing aside in key seats to improve the chances of other anti-Tory or pro-remain candidates defeating the Tories.

Conservatives

Alistair Burt North East Bedfordshire; Keith Simpson Broadland; Nicholas Soames Mid Sussex; Michael Fallon Sevenoaks; Nick Hurd Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner; Jo Johnson Orpington; Caroline Spelman Meriden; Claire Perry Devizes; Richard Benyon Newbury; David Jones Clwyd West; Mark Prisk Hertford and Stortford; Bill Grant Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock; Hugo Swire East Devon; Jeremy LeFroy Stafford; David Tredinnick Bosworth; Glyn Davies Montgomeryshire; Mark Field Cities of London and Westminster; Seema Kennedy South Ribble; Sarah Newton Truro and Falmouth; Richard Harrington Watford; David Lidington Aylesbury; Patrick McLoughlin Derbyshire Dales; Alan Duncan Rutland and Melton; Peter Heaton-Jones North Devon; Nicky Morgan Loughborough; Margot James Stourbridge; Mark Lancaster Milton Keynes North; Ross Thomson Aberdeen South; Henry Bellingham North West Norfolk; Nick Herbert Arundel and South Downs; Ed Vaizey Wantage; George Hollingbery Meon Valley; Charlie Elphicke Dover; David Jones Clwyd West

Labour

Kevin Barron Rother Valley; Paul Farrelly Newcastle-under-Lyme; John Mann Bassetlaw; Kate Hoey Vauxhall; Teresa Pearce Erith and Thamesmead; Stephen Pound Ealing North; Geoffrey Robinson Coventry North West; Stephen Twigg Liverpool West Derby; Jim Cunningham Coventry South; Ian Lucas Wrexham; Albert Owen Ynys Môn; Roberta Blackman-Woods City of Durham; Gloria De Piero Ashfield; Ronnie Campbell Blyth Valley; Jim Fitzpatrick Poplar and Limehouse; Ann Clwyd Cynon Valley; Owen Smith Pontypridd; Adrian Bailey West Bromwich West; Helen Jones Warrington North; Tom Watson West Bromwich East

Independent

Philip Hammond* Runnymede and Weybridge; Justine Greening* Putney; Rory Stewart* Penrith and the Border; Guto Bebb* Aberconwy; Oliver Letwin* West Dorset; Ken Clarke* Rushcliffe; Jared O'Mara** Sheffield Hallam; Louise Ellman** Liverpool Riverside; Amber Rudd* Hastings and Rye; John Woodcock** Barrow and Furness; Kelvin Hopkins** Luton North; Ian Austin** Dudley North; Sylvia Hermon North Down; Nick Boles* Grantham and Stamford

Liberal Democrats

Heidi Allen*** South Cambridgeshire; Sir Vince Cable Twickenham; Norman Lamb North Norfolk 

Independent Group for Change

Ann Coffey Stockport; Joan Ryan Enfield North  

Democratic Unionist Party

David Simpson Upper Bann

Speaker

John Bercow Buckingham

* Formally Conservative party 
** Formally Labour party
*** Originally elected as a Conservative

Harvie said Scottish politics was more complex, chiefly due to its constitutional debates. The Lib Dems prioritise stopping Brexit but oppose independence. The SNP wants to stop Brexit but is now prioritising independence, while Labour wants a new Brexit deal and a second EU referendum, while also halting the Tories.

“There’s no single tactical strategy that achieves all of these things [in Scotland],” he said. “If people are minded to think tactically, it’s going to be a local decision. And it shouldn’t be one that is forced upon them by political parties.”

The Scottish Greens have been accused of helping the SNP, their allies in the independence movement, after its local branches chose not to stand candidates in two of Scotland’s most marginal seats which the SNP is at risk of losing – Perth and North Perthshire, and North East Fife.

Harvie denied that – delegates at his party’s annual conference voted unanimously against any coalitions or pacts, he said. He said relations with the SNP had soured significantly after he attacked the Scottish government’s climate strategy for being too weak.

Green candidates were needed wherever possible “so the energy and excitement that’s come into the climate movement in recent years gets some political expression”, he said.

“Even if I accept that we have a way to go before sweeping the board at a Westminster election. you’re not going to make progress by not taking part.

“We’re not going to build a green vote, we’re not going to engage more people in politics just by buggering off out of the democratic process. That’s just not a viable trajectory.”