UK LABOUR leader Keir Starmer has once again reaffirmed his anti-independence stance in a press conference following his clearing over “beergate”.
In response to a question on whether a UK Labour government would consider a coalition, he stated that he would “absolutely rule it out”, and that there was “no basis for an alliance” with the SNP - despite his party having formed a number of councils in Scotland with support from the Tories.
He stated: “Let me tell the SNP first – there will be no deal going into a General Election and no deal coming out of a General Election. And that’s not about a numbers game, as far as I’m concerned. I want to be PM for the whole of the United Kingdom.
“I want a Labour government for the whole of the United Kingdom. There is no basis for an alliance with a party that wants to break up the United Kingdom.
“I want to grow the economy, there’s no basis for an alliance with a party that thinks the answer to growing the economy is to put a border between England and Scotland.
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“There is no basis for an alliance under a Keir Starmer government between Labour and the SNP, full stop.”
His latest comments follow earlier remarks made where he stated he agreed with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s bizarre claims that Putin would be happy with the renewed campaign for Scottish independence.
Starmer told The National earlier this week: “What Putin wants is to sow division amongst all of those that are opposed to his aggression in Ukraine.
“That is the position across the whole of Europe, across all of the allied countries that are supporting Ukraine. He wants those countries to be divided and he wants the political parties to be divided within those countries.
“Whatever other disagreements I have with Boris Johnson and the Government, on the question of standing with Ukraine and standing up to Putin, we stand as one.”
It was revealed earlier on Friday that Starmer has not been fined over alleged lockdown breaches after an investigation by Durham police, saving his leadership.
The Labour leader and his deputy Angela Rayner have both escaped being slapped with fixed penalty notices over the so-called “Beergate scandal”.
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