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Scottish Greens launch manifesto with wealth tax

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13:21UTC

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Key takeaway

An 89-page Green menu of free buses, wealth tax and no new oil, pitched without a fiscal-credibility claim.

The Scottish Greens published an 89-page Holyrood manifesto on 14 April 2026, launched at Barras Art and Design in Glasgow by co-leaders Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay.⁠¹ Headline pledges include free bus travel for all Scots, no new North Sea oil and gas licensing, 40,000 green energy jobs, free dental care, expanded childcare and a Scottish wealth tax, alongside levies on landlords, supermarkets, gambling firms and private schools.

The platform is offered against the IFS's full-sweep verdict on every Holyrood contender. Rather than defend a costing the watchdog would likely reject, The Greens chose not to claim fiscal credibility at all, a position made explicit in Patrick Harvie's remark that the concept is misleading. The document is a policy menu rather than a budget, and it is pitched as such.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

The Scottish Greens published their plans for the Holyrood election on 14 April. The 89-page document includes some ambitious proposals: free bus travel for everyone in Scotland, a ban on new North Sea oil and gas extraction, 40,000 new green energy jobs, free dental care and a wealth tax on Scotland's richest. The party is led jointly by Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, who launched the manifesto at a venue in Glasgow. Scottish Greens hold a specific place in Scottish politics: they previously supported the SNP government in a formal cooperation agreement but ended that arrangement in 2023. In the 2026 election, they are independent again and looking to win seats as Coalition partners rather than government supporters.

What could happen next?

Consequence
The North Sea oil ban pledge creates a direct conflict with the SNP's position (which has not formally ruled out new licensing) and may complicate any post-election cooperation between the two parties if Holyrood produces a hung result.
Opportunity
Free bus travel as a flagship pledge targets a demographic (under-25s, over-60s, non-car-owners) that the Scottish Greens' polling suggests is disproportionately likely to vote for them, potentially boosting turnout among their target cohort.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: The 2003 Scottish Parliament election saw the Scottish Greens and Scottish Socialists publish explicitly non-costed manifestos framed as moral visions rather than fiscal programmes. Both won regional list seats on that platform. The structural parallel is not ideological but tactical: in a proportional system, a party with a strong values proposition can win representation without winning the credibility argument.

Counter-parallel: The Scottish Greens' 2011 manifesto, published with detailed costings and IFS engagement, produced their worst Holyrood result: two seats, down from seven in 2003. The correlation is not causal, but it does not support the thesis that fiscal rigour helps Green parties in Scottish elections.

Consensus view: The Institute for Welsh Affairs (IWA) noted that the Scottish Greens' decision to launch without seeking IFS pre-approval parallels the approach of the Wales Green Party, which also published its Senedd manifesto without seeking independent fiscal assessment, a deliberate positioning choice rather than an oversight.

IPPR Scotland's Carys Roberts assessed the 40,000 green energy jobs pledge as arithmetically plausible within a five-year Parliament if North Sea decommissioning work is counted as green employment, but that the number depends entirely on how the category is defined.

Counter-view: The Centre for Policy Studies' Tim Pitt argued that the Scottish Greens' wealth tax proposal (levying on assets above a threshold) has been modelled independently and would produce one-time revenues rather than the sustained income stream needed to fund recurrent spending commitments like free bus travel.

Pitt cited the French ISF wealth tax experience, which produced significant capital flight before being abolished in 2017, as a comparable structural risk for any devolved jurisdiction with porous borders to the rest of the UK.

Key tension: Whether the Scottish Greens' refusal to claim fiscal credibility represents a sustainable campaign strategy or merely defers the credibility problem to any post-election Coalition negotiation.

Sources:STV News

Mentions:Scottish Greens →Ross Greer →Gillian Mackay →Parliament →Senedd →Holyrood →Wales →Green Party →Glasgow →Patrick Harvie →Scottish National Party (SNP) →North Sea →Scottish Parliament →

First Reported In

Update #4 · 22 Days to Go: Greens Take a Reform Seat in Kent

STV News· 15 Apr 2026

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Different Perspectives

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Conservative Party (frontbench peers and Kemi Badenoch)

Conservative frontbench peers argued against retrospective rules at the Lords Second Reading on 14 September, a position that protects gifts made before any cap. Kemi Badenoch rejected Burnham's electoral reform commission on 2 October, accusing him of using it to entrench the left.

Reform UK

Reform denied wrongdoing after the Channel 4 News programme, called the sting a hoax by climate activists and said it would cooperate with the Metropolitan Police. In the same month it announced £36m gifts from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.

Steff Aquarone / Liberal Democrats (North Norfolk)

Aquarone told Rayner in the Commons on 7 September that North Norfolk District Council had spent money preparing for a reorganisation the Government has now withdrawn. He puts the cost of the cancelled merger on districts in the four areas.