STEPHEN Flynn has insisted that “under no circumstances” would the SNP want to be part of a coalition with Labour in Westminster.
The SNP Westminster group leader told the Sophy Ridge on Sunday show on Sky News that if Keir Starmer’s party wins the next General Election, his party would not be interested in a power-sharing pact.
However, he did say that he would “support” a government that backed principles such as allowing the people of Scotland to “decide their own future”.
We previously told how Flynn dismissed a trade-off with Labour over indyref2 in May, but admitted that a hung parliament will be “key” to Scotland’s future.
Labour leader Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar have both repeatedly ruled out any deals with the SNP before or after a General Election.
Sarwar has been so insistent at refusing to work with the SNP, that it led to the collapse of the SNP-Labour administration at Dumfries and Galloway council.
Flynn was asked by Ridge if he would consider going into coalition with the Labour party if it meant keeping the Conservatives out of power”.
“So under no circumstances would a Scottish National Party member of parliament want to be part of a coalition, I don't want to be part of…” Flynn replied.
Ridge interjected: “Sure you don’t want to be, but would you do it?
Flynn replied: “No, no, I don't want to be part of a UK coalition, that's for a politician, I shouldn't be voting on matters to do with England or Wales or otherwise.
“What I would do is seek to, where there's [an] opportunity, support a government which was adhering to principles that the people of Scotland voted for, like the opportunity to decide their own future.
“So that's a pretty clear line that the Labour Party would need to cross to come and have conversations with us and I'd be quite happy to have those conversations with them.”
Earlier Flynn was asked if having a Labour-run Westminster government would make it a “bit harder to make that independence argument”.
Flynn told Sky News that he “disagreed fundamentally” with the premise of the question.
He said: “I'm a young lad fae Dundee and I had to grow up in the thralls of Conservative damage which took away hope and opportunity for generations of people, which left industry on its knees, and left people without opportunities.
“Under no circumstances would I ever countenance the Tories being good for Scotland and that's why we've not voted for them since 1955.”
Flynn said that the SNP “want something better”, not just the same, pointing to Labour’s comments that they would follow Conservative spending plans if they won the next election, their rollback on green policies, and their refusal to speak against Brexit.
“We want Scotland to have its place in the world,” Flynn said.
“We want to be part of the European community, we want to offer people hope and aspiration for the future of change for a better future.
“You know, we see Ireland and what they're doing, Norway, what they're doing, why not Scotland? Why can Scotland not have that?”
It comes after Flynn criticized the “dregs of society” who have attacked his Westminster group deputy Mhairi Black, who announced she would be standing down as an SNP MP at the next election.
Flynn said he agreed with Black's description of Westminster being "toxic" and was not surprised the place had taken its toll on her.
