Our newest MSP Jamie Greene has hit the ground running since he joined us last month. Since being appointed as Economy and Finance spokesperson by Alex Cole-Hamilton, he has been holding the SNP to account on such issues as their spectacular ferry failures.

He knocked it out of the park on Debate Night (BBC Scotland Question Time equivalent which, unlike its UK counterpart, you can often watch without losing the will to live) on Wednesday. Here he is challenging Labour’s Melanie Ward about Keir Starmer’s disgraceful language on immigration:

“This is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to a very serious, complicated issue”

Lib Dem @jamiegreeneUK says Labour are “panicking” and engaged in “dog whistle politics” after Reform UK’s local election wins, and the PM should be “careful” with his language#bbcdn pic.twitter.com/qe3ne6PGKM

— BBC Debate Night (@bbcdebatenight) May 14, 2025

The SNP Government recently announced that it was lobbing its promise to legislate to ban conversion practices into the very long grass. This week, Jamie challenged them to let him take the Bill through Holyrood if they won’t.

He said:

All political parties promised to back change in the law in their 2021 Holyrood manifestos. The SNP made an explicit promise if they got into government to introduce this Bill and haven’t.

It’s no wonder political parties were banned from taking part in this year’s Pride events. Organisers say they are sick of warm words of encouragement to the LGBT+ community and want action.

It might be politically unappealing in an election year to have difficult conversations and debates of this nature, but backing down from promises and shying away from the argument is an insult to those affected by this abhorrent practice

I’ve made a simple offer to the SNP government: introduce the legislation this year, and if you can’t, or won’t, give the Bill to me and I will introduce it.

The only blockage now is the Scottish Government. So it’s over to them: do they say you support the LGBT community in words alone or will they take action?”

The text of Jamie’s letter to Equalities Minister, Kaukab Stewart, is as follows:

Dear Minister,

I write to you following my General Question on the 15th of May 2025 (S6O-04661) with regards to banning of so-named conversion therapy practices in Scotland.

I, along with many other LGBT+ individuals in Scotland, were disappointed to see plans to ban this practice dropped from the First Minister’s Programme for Government on the 6th of May 2025. The government consulted widely on this much-anticipated legislation just last year. Banning conversion therapy practices in this parliamentary term featured in every main political party’s manifesto in the 2021 election, including the Scottish National Party, a manifesto on which you were ultimately elected.

The current proposal to “wait and see” what happens at a UK level is a dangerous one. The former Conservative UK government shelved plans to introduce UK wide legislation of this nature, and to date there are no immediate signs from the new Labour government to introduce a Bill any time soon. Sadly, the Scottish Government cannot rely on the UK government to introduce this legislation in a timeous manner.

To delay this Bill until the next Scottish parliamentary session is reneging on a commitment made by you in this parliamentary session, and also a huge gamble. It pins hopes that any future government in Scotland will be one that progresses LGBT+ rights, not one which rolls back on them. It also gambles that parliamentary arithmetic will allow them to pass this law. That is a risk the community is simply not willing to take, and nor am I.

The First Minister recently stated that: “Scots must act now to protect our…shared values from the rise of the far right.” With that in mind I am urging the Scottish Government to do one of two things:

Introduce this legislation as a government before the end of this Parliamentary session or;
Hand this legislation to me and I will take it through the Parliament before the end of this session.

Whilst I am willing to meet and discuss this matter I must also be clear that the time for warm words has ended on this long overdue change, the time for action is now.

Jamie Greene MSP

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings