WHITEHALL civil servants are holding pre-election talks with the SNP to prepare for the possibility of Nicola Sturgeon’s party forming part of a coalition government.

There is a long-standing convention which sees officials discuss priorities with opposition parties to allow them to prepare for whoever forms the next government.

But this is the first time that the SNP have been involved in what are known as “access talks”.

According to The Times, the discussions have been approved by Boris Johnson.

While the SNP have ruled out a formal coalition with any party, they have talked about working with Labour on a “progressive” basis.

Current polls predict the party will increase their tally of seats at the next election and could hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.

Civil servants are also in discussions with the LibDems.

At the 2015 election Nicola Sturgeon asked for the talks but David Cameron refused.

A UK government source told The Times the civil service was talking “to opposition parties”.

Whitehall had to prepare “for an entire range of possibilities”, including a hung parliament, and it was normal to talk to more than one party.

A Labour source said: “This is a waste of everyone’s time because the SNP is not going to be in government.”

An SNP spokesman said: “The last three Westminster elections have shown that the SNP is a key force in the politics of the UK and will be fundamental to the outcome of this election.”

Last month, Sturgeon said the SNP would only back Labour if Jeremy Corbyn promised to deliver indyref2.

She told the BBC: “I would say this to Jeremy Corbyn or any Westminster leader who’s looking to the SNP for support – if you don’t accept Scotland’s right to choose our own future, at the time of our own choosing, don’t even bother picking up the phone to me.”

Sturgeon said she would only back a “progressive-type alliance”.

Last week she said she was confident Labour would give Holyrood a Section 30 order. “I’m a believer in the power of democracy,” she said at a campaign event in Leith.

“If people in Scotland demonstrate the desire – as I believe they will in this election – for an independence referendum, then I don’t believe Westminster opposition to the principle or to the timetable to that will prove to be sustainable.’’

Sturgeon added: “Everybody knows there’s going to be an independence referendum.

“The opposition parties might not have got round to conceding that point in public but they know it and everybody knows it.’’

Corbyn has said a new independence referendum is “not necessary or desirable’’ and would not be a priority in the early years of a Labour government.

He said: “Labour does not support independence for Scotland and we do not think another independence referendum is either desirable or necessary.”