Scottish Greens plan to push through 'millionaire's tax' and back independence referendum

Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie launches his party's manifesto at SWG3, Glasgow - James Chapelard 
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The Scottish Greens want to enter a coalition government with the SNP after the Holyrood election and push through an array of tax hikes for the wealthy including a new "millionaire's tax", their co-leader has said.

Patrick Harvie said his party "aspired" to enter government after May 6 if Nicola Sturgeon fails to win an outright majority as he unveiled a manifesto backing her plans for another independence referendum.

Although he refused to set out his policy “red lines” for a coalition deal, the Green manifesto set out radical proposals to hike income tax for wealthier Scots and replace council tax with a levy based on property values that would also increase bills for the better-off.

In a triple whammy, one in 10 Scots would also face a "millionaire's tax" levied on everyone who owns property, land, pensions and other assets that together are valued at more than £1 million.

In addition, businessmen who have to take regular international flights for their work would be forced to pay an escalating tax on their tickets and a "windfall tax" imposed on companies deemed to have made "extraordinary profits" during the pandemic.

Mr Harvie also unveiled proposals to ban homeowners from selling older properties until they spend thousands of pounds making them more energy efficient.

Among their flagship rural policies are a total ban on fox hunting, forcing all "significant" landowners to be subjected to a public interest test if they want to keep their property and allowing community groups to purchase their holdings at below market rate.

Opinion polls have indicated Ms Sturgeon's SNP is on the cusp of winning an overall majority but may require the support of the pro-Greens if she falls short.

Ms Sturgeon - ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP
Ms Sturgeon - ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP

Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, said the Green manifesto laid "bare the price ordinary Scots would be expected to pay for this nightmare alliance", with hard-working families "crippled by eye-watering tax rises".

Over the past five years the Greens have worked with the minority SNP administration on a case-by-case basis, particularly on deals to get the annual Scottish Budget passed, but Mr Harvie said their election manifesto was a "programme for government".

He said: "There are Green parties in coalition in a number of other European countries. And I think we do aspire, I'm sure we do aspire as a political party, as all political parties do, to taking a role in government.

"It's for the people to decide what the election result is, and it will be for the biggest party to decide if they want to talk with others. Now if we were asked, I suspect there are a lot of people in the party who would be willing for us to have the conversation."

Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross and Ruth Davidson - Alan Simpson Photography 
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross and Ruth Davidson - Alan Simpson Photography

He said he did not want to speculate how coalition talks would progress with Ms Sturgeon after the election but argued there were "really massive issues" that the SNP had failed to grasp such as moving away from fossil fuels and land reform.

Lorna Slater, the party's other co-leader, denied that hiking taxes for the wealthy would lead to a flight of investors south of the Border, claiming that a massive increase in spending on public projects would attract investment.

She said: "This idea that we must attract millionaires to our soil and hopefully they'll shower us with their gold is not a way to run an economy." However, the manifesto contained no figures for the new tax levels they want to impose or how much they would generate.

It was launched the morning after a TV election debate in which Mr Harvie indicated he would demand during SNP coalition talks the end of North Sea oil and gas production within a decade.

Mr Ross said: "The Greens are no different to Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP in their determination to force through another damaging independence referendum when all our focus should be on recovery.

"Hard-working families would be crippled by eye-watering tax rises which rather than increasing public revenue would choke the economy, crush aspiration and devastate our public services."