MSP Gillian Mackay announces bid for Scottish Greens co-leadership

Gillian Mackay has announced that she will be standing for Scottish Green party leadership when current co-leader Patrick Harvey steps down this summer.

Harvey, the Scottish Greens’ co-leader and their longest-serving MSP, announced in April that he will not stand in the party’s upcoming leadership election, which is set to take place this summer.

The MSP confirmed her intention to run for party leadership in the coming months on Friday.

“I’m really proud to be announcing that I’m running to be co-leader of the Scottish Greens,” Mackay said.

“At a time when politics is dominated by the egos of men, it’s all the more important that we have women with big voices and ideas in politics. I hope that you think I tick at least one of those boxes.

“Over the last four years, I’ve shown that I can deliver on the causes that I champion and bring people together behind them. I believe I’m the person that can not only take the party further and deliver great election results, but deliver fantastic things for Scotland and our communities.”

Mackay was first elected in 2021, and she is the first ever Scottish Greens MSP for Central Scotland.

She is currently the party spokesperson on health and social care, and her abortion clinic buffer zones bill was passed by MSPs overwhelmingly in June 2024.

The bill brought in 200-metre-wide exclusion zones, or buffer zones, around health care facilities offering abortions to protect women seeking healthcare from harassment.

The Abortion Services Safe Access Zones (Scotland) Bill banned “certain activities”, including protests within 200m of abortion care facilities, and it was agreed by 118 votes to 1 at its final stage of consideration in the Scottish Parliament last summer.

The Scottish Greens party has a co-leadership system with Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvey currently at the helm.

Lorna Slater has been a Scottish Greens co-leader since 2019 and is a newly elected MSP for Lothian.

She has already confirmed that she will stand for re-election in this summer’s ballot.

The Scottish Greens elect co-leaders every two years, with the winners of this year’s contest expected to be announced in August.

Any member can stand as a candidate, though one of the co-chiefs has to be a woman.