THE Scottish Greens have launched their Holyrood manifesto with fixing childcare “at the heart” and a declaration there should be “absolutely no new oil and gas fields” in the North Sea.

Key pledges include 40,000 green energy jobs and boosting free childcare to 570 hours for those between six months and two years old, and 1,140 free hours for all two-year-olds, a move co-leader Gillian MacKay argued would be the “biggest expansion of free childcare in a generation.”

As the British government comes under increasing pressure to approve new North Sea drilling amid soaring energy prices, her fellow co-leader Ross Greer focused on climate, telling party faithful at the Glasgow launch: “This is a plan to tackle the climate crisis.

“It shouldn’t be the case that we are the only party publishing a manifesto compatible with the scientific reality of the crisis that we face, and yet we are.

“The Scottish Greens are proud to be the only party in this election saying there can be absolutely no new oil and gas fields in the North Sea.”

Pointing to the party’s record while in coalition with the SNP, Ms MacKay added: “It was the Scottish Greens who introduced free bus travel for everyone under 22.

“It was the Scottish Greens who scrapped peak rail fares. It was the Scottish Greens who ended school meal debt and increased taxes on the richest.

“And it was the Scottish Greens who took on the landlord lobby and introduced rent controls.

“We’ve done all of that with only seven MSPs — think of what we could do if there are 10 of us? Twelve of us? Fifteen of us? Or maybe even more.”