THE Scottish Greens will be left "carrying the can" in the co-operation agreement with the SNP, new Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has said.
Cole-Hamilton, also known as "Mr Nasty" after telling the SNP's Maree Todd to "fuck off" during a committee meeting", took the reins of his party yesterday, succeeding Willie Rennie.
His coronation was overshadowed by the announcement of details on the deal between the Greens and the SNP.
READ MORE: LibDem Alex Cole-Hamilton heaps praise on 'transcendent' Ruth Davidson
The LibDem livestream also faced a number of technical hitches, with viewers on YouTube seeing constant technical glitches.
The co-operation agreement will see the Greens support the majority of Government legislation, while also having two MSPs take ministerial office – although the agreement is not a formal coalition.
Cole-Hamilton's party is the most recent example of the perils of coalition working itself, after the LibDems were decimated at the ballot box in recent General Elections following their partnership with the Conservatives at Westminster in 2010.
The party currently has just four MSPs at Holyrood and was boosted by tactical voting from Unionists.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, Cole-Hamilton said: "This is just formalising a relationship that has existed in Scotland for years.
"I think it looks like pretty thin gruel for the Green Party, they'll soon realise that they will have to carry the can for all of the SNP's inadequacies on public policy.
"Whether that's the threadbare state of our police force, the waiting times – that people are clutching letters that say they will be seen in 12 weeks when there isn't a chance they'll be seen in 50.
"This is all part of the Greens' deal, they're going to have to carry the can for all this and, you know, good luck to them."
The new leader also made an attempt to distance himself from the 2010 coalition, saying: "I wouldn't really be able to advise the Greens on coalition, because I was never part of that, I wasn't in elected politics when that happened.
"I'm the first post-coalition generation Liberal Democrat who has sought and won the leadership of the party in Scotland.
"I understand the damage that the coalition did to my party, we've had to work hard to regain trust and belief and there were decisions that were taken in that time I would have pushed back on.
"This is a new generation of LibDem talent that's coming to the fore, not just with me but with a raft of crackling new candidates who are brimming with talent and a new hope coming to the fore."
Cole-Hamilton said in the lead up to his anointment as leader, after no other candidates came forward, he would work with the Tories in a bid to create a case for the Union.
READ MORE: Alex Cole-Hamilton says he will work with Tories to bolster Union support
But he said he currently considers the Conservatives to be "part of the problem".
He said: "I will make the positive case for the Union with anybody, but it has to be a reformed union.
"At the moment, the Conservatives are part of the problem. We are trapped between a clash of two nationalisms – the Scottish nationalism of the SNP and the Brexit nationalism of the Tory Party.
"If that is the decision before us then everybody loses."
He had previously distanced himself from a deal with Labour citing "recurring problems".
He said: "Labour has recurring problems with the rise of the hard left, it is still grappling with anti-Semitism, and it has some tendencies I will never support, like big government.
“Remember the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown ID cards, which many Labour members are still wedded to. We could never sign up wholesale to any kind of merger or pact with the Labour Party, but they are our friends in many ways, and we speak the same language on many social issues.”
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