News / Urquhart joins green alliance
LOCAL list MSP Jean Urquhart has joined an alliance of three independent and two Scottish Green Party MSPs in Holyrood.
The five believe they can better represent their constituents by working together.
Independents Urquhart, John Finnie and Margo MacDonald will join SGP members Patrick Harvie and Alison Johnstone in what they describe as a “technical working group”.
Urquhart, Finnie and MacDonald are all former members of the SNP, Urquhart having stood for the party in Shetland in May 2011. Urquhart and Finnie, who represent the Highlands and Islands, left the party a month ago in protest at the decision that an independent Scotland would join the NATO military alliance.
MacDonald is a former deputy leader of the SNP, but was expelled from the party in 2003 after she stood as an independent for Lothian having been sidelined by the party.
Harvie and Johnstone are the only Green MSPs in Holyrood following the SNP success at the 2011 Scottish election.
All five support the Yes Scotland campaign for independence in the 2014 referendum.
In a prepared statement on Thursday, the quintet said: “The five of us have discussed ways in which we can work together, and after taking advice from colleagues on our options, have decided to form a grouping to enhance our ability to represent our constituents.
“Although every member of our grouping is pro-independence and believes strongly in a more equal, sustainable Scotland, it is by no means a formal, party-based arrangement; no MSP has changed, or plans on changing, their party affiliation or on taking positions different to those they have taken in the past.
“We all look forward to pushing for an independent, fair and peaceful Scotland both inside and outside of Parliament, and to working with MSPs across the Chamber to achieve these goals.”
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