KEIR Starmer is pre-emptively blaming Scotland’s First Minister in case his party can’t form a government at the next General Election.
Speaking to LBC on Monday morning, the Labour leader wished Nicola Sturgeon luck in explaining how the SNP “bring down” his party in a hypothetical election scenario.
Starmer has repeatedly ruled out doing deals with the SNP, while his party is propped up by Tories in council administrations across Scotland.
A radio caller, named Ricky, rang up from Leeds to ask if the former lawyer would rather do a deal with Sturgeon’s party to get into power at Westminster or accept another five years of Tory rule.
“We are not doing a deal with the SNP, I’ll say that in capitals, I’ll say it bold,” Starmer told listeners.
“We’re not borrowing seats from the SNP and getting it over the line, no deal.”
The Labour chief indicated that it would be his preference to form a minority government at Westminster, rather than form a coalition with SNP representatives.
One recent poll indicated that the SNP could win as many as 58 out of Scotland’s 59 constituencies at the next election, which they hope to use as a de facto referendum on independence.
He went on: “Look, the SNP will have to make their mind up.
“If they want to bring down an incoming Labour government and prop up a Tory government then that’s their choice and that’s what they’ll have to sell back in Scotland – good luck with that one.”
The SNP's Westminster depute leader was unimpressed with Starmer's comments.
Mhairi Black MP said: “The choice facing Scots at the next election is between an escape from the broken Westminster system with independence or the same old chaos and destruction we’re forced to live through right now as part of that system.
“Starmer’s Labour are a pro-Brexit party who stand shoulder to shoulder with the Tories in blocking the cast-iron democratic mandate which exists for an independence referendum and offer nothing but a continuation of the damaging Westminster status quo, which is why Scotland needs independence.
“Any failure of the Labour Party to win power at the next election won’t be the fault of people in Scotland but of Labour themselves for refusing to learn the lessons of the past and putting their arrogant complacency before the political mood of our country.”
During the LBC appearance, Starmer went on to set out his vision for the Union – failing to mention Gordon Brown’s recently launched constitutional reforms.
“This is fundamental to me,” he said. “Running through the SNP is their mission to break up the United Kingdom and for Scotland to become independent. I fundamentally disagree with that … not just because of what we’ve achieved historically but because of what we will achieve in the future.
“If I look at the big challenges of our time – Ukraine and security, a pandemic, how we grow our economy, the climate crisis … these are issues which will be better met as a union of four nations going forward together. So, Ricky, absolutely no deal with the SNP.”
