DOUGLAS Ross has been knocked back by Scottish Labour after trying to arrange a tactical voting plan with other Unionists leaders.
Anas Sarwar has point blank refused to countenance the idea and accused Ross of political gameplaying.
With Alex Salmond hoping his new Alba Party can create a “super majority” of MSPs in favour of independence, the Scottish Tories had been pressing Labour to agree to a Unionist pact to try to combat this.
The Scottish Labour leader, however, insisted both Ross and Salmond were treating “politics as a game”.
He said: “This election is not a game, our Parliament is not a game, it is about focusing on what our priorities should be as a country and deciding what the focus of our Parliament should be for the next five years.”
The Labour chief explained he wanted to work “to bring our country together to focus on our national recovery” and to “not be distracted by those old arguments, egos and settling of scores”.
Sarwar, who stressed he was opposed to a second independence referendum, continued: “My position on the constitution is absolutely clear and it is purely a game-playing exercise for Douglas Ross to try and project some other kind of position on the constitution.
“The reality is whether you were Yes or whether you were No, whether you were Leave or whether you were Remain, you have been equally impacted by this pandemic.
“What people need at this time of national crisis is for politicians to focus on people for a change and not focus on themselves and their own obsessions.”
READ MORE: Douglas Ross says Scottish Tories could stand down candidates to beat SNP and Alba
The Scottish Labour leader was withering about his political rivals as he insisted the May 6 ballot should be regarded as a “wartime election”.
He said: “I don’t think the electorate would appreciate political parties playing games at a time of national emergency.
“We are in the midst of a pandemic, this is not a normal election, this is a pandemic election, in many ways a wartime election “What people would expect is not politicians playing games, not politicians focusing on egos, not politicians focusing on old arguments or trying to settle scores.”
The comments come in the wake of several SNP politicians sigining up to Alba.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon appears to have veiled dig at Alex Salmond in SNP speech
Speaking about the new party, Sarwar said: “This is an attempt to settle scores, to seek revenge and about individual people’s egos.
“Our politics is much better than that – or at least has to be much better than that.
“I want no part of that kind of ego trip of one individual, because our recovery is more important than the psychodrama of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon.
“I have no time for these egos and personalities and the settling of old arguments. We need a relentless focus on a national recovery instead.”
He added: “When I talk about it being a wartime election, I am talking about it being a war against poverty and against a virus that has decimated our country and challenged the very fabric of our society.”
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