Scottish Greens 'riding same wave' as Green Party as membership boom continues

The Scottish Greens are celebrating another membership surge as the party seeks to win its first ever constituency seat at next year's Holyrood election.

Last week, the party announced 800 new members had joined in the past six months - representing a 10% increase. Now, more than 400 people have signed up in the last week alone.

The membership now stands at 8,680 - the highest level since 2016 - and is more than the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Liberal Democrats. MSP Gillian Mackay, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said: "The surge in our membership shows that there is a clear demand for eco-socialist policies that make people's everyday lives better.

"That is what the Scottish Greens are offering. "Last weekend we had our biggest party conference for a decade, and I was delighted by how many new faces there were in the hall.

"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." The Scottish Greens returned eight MSPs in the 2021 Scottish parliament election, with this being their best result to date. The party is now aiming to pick up more seats in 2026 - and will be competing for constituency as well as regional list votes.

As part of the power-sharing Bute House Agreement with the SNP, the Scottish Greens championed free bus travel for under-22s, was at the forefront of the scrapping of peak ScotRail fares, and helped secure a national fund to write off millions of pounds' worth of school meal debt. However, the party was criticised for the Scottish government's doomed deposit return scheme (DRS).

Ms Mackay and Ross Greer were elected new co-leaders of the Scottish Greens in August. The pair replaced Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater.

Speaking to Sky News, polling expert Sir John Curtice said the Scottish Greens appear to be "riding much the same wave" the Green Party in England and Wales is currently enjoying. The party south of the border recently boasted a membership of more than 126,000 people, marking an 80% surge since Zack Polanski took over as leader last month.

Sir John, a political scientist and professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said of the increases: "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 people who support the Greens tend to be rather further to the left.

They're certainly very much socially liberal." Sir John said Ms Mackay and Mr Greer are yet to make much of an impression on the public. He added: "Polanski has had a very good start.

He's got charisma, he's got presence, he is very self-assured. "I'm looking forward 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." Read more from Sky News:Why next year's Scottish elections could get messyEverything you need to know about being a political party member Sir John noted that the Scottish Greens - which is distinct from the Green Party - is not doing as well in the Scottish polls compared to the Green Party across the rest of the UK as it faces stiff competition from the SNP. However, while the Scottish Greens are enjoying a boom in membership, the SNP has lost thousands of supporters.

Recent financial accounts showed SNP membership fell to 56,011 as of 1 June 2025, down from 64,525 at the same time last year and less than half of its peak of around 125,000 in 2019. Sir John said the SNP will be "worried" by the 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 much the Greens fight the constituency seats because they don't usually fight more than the occasional one." Despite First Minister John Swinney's latest plan for another independence referendum, Sir John believes the SNP will need a "great deal of luck" to win a majority at Holyrood.

Earlier on Friday, three Scottish Green councillors in Glasgow and one of the party's top candidates in the city defected to Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's Your Party. Sir John said: "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.".