Nicola Sturgeon has accused Labour of doing “backroom deals” with the Tories to secure control of top councils.
The First Minister blasted Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar after it emerged his party will run local authorities such as Stirling, Fife and South Lanarkshire as a result of support from pro-UK parties.
Coalition agreements have dominated local government in recent years, but pre-election bans are said to be causing havoc with the ability of councils being able to govern.
Sarwar ruled out formal coalitions with the SNP or Tories - despite previous deals with Nicola Sturgeon ’s party.
The SNP and Greens have also refused to enter into any deals with the Tories, leading to a narrowing of options for running councils.
In many areas, the SNP came first without winning an overall majority, a situation that will allow Labour to take control as a minority.
At Holyrood, Sarwar laid in to Sturgeon over rail cuts and accused her of chasing headlines.
Sturgeon replied: “Chasing headlines…could that be like, I don't know, perhaps saying in a council election that there will be no coalitions and then doing backroom deals with the Tories after the council elections?
“Anas comes to this chamber and talks about the cost of living crisis when his party is seeking to do backroom deals with the authors of that cost of living crisis.”
In Fife, May’s election saw the SNP become the largest party with 34 councillors - four short of a majority.
Labour have 20 councillors, the Lib Dems returned 13 and the Tories came fourth after securing eight.
The Tories and LibDems backed Labour to install them as a minority administration.
In South Lanarkshire, the SNP won 27 seats, three more than Labour, but support by the Lib Dems helped install Labour as the ruling party.
Labour came third in Stirling, but Tory support for a minority administration has locked the SNP out of power.
Edinburgh has been run by an SNP/Labour coalition for around a decade, but Sarwar’s ban means a rerun is a non-starter.
Although an SNP/Green deal in the Capital is possible, another option is for the Lib Dems and Tories to vote for a minority Labour administration.
In North Lanarkshire, a pro-Union alliance could have seen Labour run the local authority as a minority, but the party’s councillors backed away and agreed to be in opposition.
SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown said: “Before the election, Anas Sarwar made a pitch to the people of Scotland urging them to kick the toxic Tories out of power and now they are doing dirty deals with the same Tories.
“For a Scottish Labour leader to tolerate such a stitch-up with this corrupt, immoral, law-breaking Tory Party is an unpardonable act of betrayal of working-class Scots who rejected the Tories at the ballot box just two weeks ago.
“Anas Sarwar has shredded any last remaining integrity he has to lead Labour in Scotland.
"Scotland has not voted to put the Tories into power for seventy years - but Scottish Labour has just done exactly that. It is a shameful day for the party.”
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "This is just the latest Trumpian outburst by an SNP government that is out of ideas and trying to hide its multiple failings behind faux outrage.
"Never forget that this is coming from the same SNP who were propped up in Government by the Tories for five years.
"Whilst the SNP try to spread disinformation, Labour will focus on delivering for the people of Scotland."
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