ANAS Sarwar’s Labour party are being challenged to ditch making pacts with the Tories for their new year’s resolution.
The party’s collaboration with the Tories in the wake of May’s local council elections made headlines after Labour and Conservative councillors made deals to keep the SNP out of power in several authorities.
The two parties ended up co-ordinating support in Edinburgh, Fife, Moray, South Ayrshire, West Lothian and Stirling.
READ MORE: The New Year will bring yet more unelected Tory donors - The REAL Scottish Politics
And in Edinburgh, two councillors who were elected as Labour representatives were suspended from their party by Sarwar for refusing to vote for a deal with the Tories.
Meanwhile nine Labour councillors in Aberdeen, who were suspended for entering a coalition with the Tories in 2017, were allowed to stand for Sarwar’s party in the 2022 council elections.
This came after Sarwar promised there would be “no formal coalitions” for his party in the run-up to the elections, something Nicola Sturgeon described as "politically immature".
Commenting, SNP councillor Kelly Parry, who co-ordinated the SNP council election campaign, said that Sarwar had “talked a good game during the council elections about locking out the Tories” but that his “rhetoric quickly disintegrated as one by one Labour councillors carved up backdoor deals with the Conservatives”.
She added: “Scotland hasn’t voted for the Tories in General Elections since the 1950s - so it’s unbelievable that Labour would wish to deny democracy to the point of putting the Tories into power.
“The Scottish Labour leader needs to wake up to the reality of his dodgy Tory power-sharing deals.
“These No campaign coalitions must be consigned to the dustbin of history and left in 2022. It’s time for Scottish Labour to commit to a new year’s resolution of working with progressive colleagues to lock the Tories out of power in Scotland.”
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “This is desperate stuff from the SNP.
“Their pathetic sniping won’t kick this morally bankrupt Tory government out of office – but a Labour government will.
“While the SNP play petty political games, Labour are focused on forming the next government and delivering the change Scotland needs.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel