SNP close to reaching power sharing agreement with Greens

The SNP and the Scottish Greens could finalise an agreement to share power in Scotland as early as Friday.

The PA news agency understands a meeting of the Scottish cabinet will take place on Friday morning with a deal on power sharing close to being agreed.

The two parties have been locked in negotiations since May, after the SNP fell one seat short of an overall majority at the Holyrood elections.

While both parties have said there will not be a formal coalition between the two, an agreement would see them work together on key issues, and could even see some Green MSPs appointed as ministers in Nicola Sturgeon’s government.

On Sunday, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said the two parties had been “trying to finish off those last bits of discussion”.

Asked about the widely mooted co-operation deal, Mr Harvie resisted going into any details but told the BBC: “Everybody is very keen to know the outcome, I don’t think you have very long to wait.

“If we do agree something with the SNP it won’t be put into practice until our party members have had a vote … we’re trying to finish off those last bits of discussion.

“I hope very soon we’ll be able to publish something.”

A “New Zealand-style” co-operation deal has been discussed by Scottish civil servants, according to an email seen by the PA news agency.

The message, sent to members of the Scottish Greens earlier this month, said a New Zealand model, which has seen Green Party MPs in that country take on ministerial portfolios while not being in an official coalition, is being considered by civil servants and Government lawyers.