THE favourite to be the next leader of the LibDems has said her party could prop up a future Tory government.
Speaking to The Herald about going into government with Labour or the Tories, Jo Swinson said the prospect was currently unthinkable while both parties were led by Brexiteers, but if circumstances change, so too could her party’s resistance to another coalition.
“I have not said never in any future scenario, where things are different,” she said.
“I’m looking at the situation right now in terms of being led by Brexiteers on both sides. The same holds for confidence and supply. We need to stop Brexit and work with people who agree with us on that and that’s not the leadership of the Conservatives or the Labour Party.”
READ MORE: SNP hit out at Swinson for ‘making things up’ on indyref2 mandate
Speaking on Sky News hustings with her rival Ed Davey, Swinson also said she couldn’t go into government with Labour because Jeremy Corbyn’s position on Brexit made him “a danger to our country”.
Davey said there would be no coalition with Corbyn “partly because of his position on Brexit ... but also he’s a very far-left politician.”
The two also ruled out another referendum on independence.
When asked during a televised hustings on Sky News yesterday if Scots should be allowed a vote on independence after the UK had left the EU, Davey said the chaos would “be such a betrayal of the interests of Scottish people.”
Swinson said: “Breaking up is hard to do. If there’s anything we’ve learned from these three years since the Brexit vote, that’s what we’ve learned.
Asked if being taken out of the EU would count as a “significant change,” she said the SNP “do not have a mandate” for indyref2.
“They do not speak for Scotland right. They lost seats at the last General Election, they lost seats at the last Scottish election.”
READ MORE: Jo Swinson denies hypocrisy over claim she'd refuse indyref2
She admitted that the SNP were still the biggest party in Scotland but said independence had been “an absolute centrepiece of the 2017 election campaign”.
“Nicola Sturgeon had just called for indyref2 and they lost 21 MPs. That is people in Scotland being very clear about not wanting to go down that path.
“So people in Scotland do not want this. People in Scotland want to stay in the UK and in the EU and that’s what the Liberal Democrats are standing up for.”
Swinson said Scottish voters had already “had the debate in 2014”.
“People in Scotland are not showing that they want to have that chaos experience again.
“Because what happened in the run up to that? Even though we voted to stay in the UK there was still stalling in business investment, there was still problems for the economy, there was still a lot of uncertainty just by having the referendum. It’s not a cost-free option.”
The SNP’s Mhairi Black said: “By keeping the door open to another devastating coalition with the Tories, the Liberal Democrats are proving yet again that they simply cannot be trusted.”
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