SNP-Labour pact would be ‘coalition of chaos’ says May
THERESA May last night warned of a ‘coalition of chaos’ after Nicola Sturgeon threatened to help Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street by propping up a Labour government.
The Scottish First Minister said the SNP would seek to form a ‘progressive alliance‘ with Labour and the Liberal Democrats to stop the Prime Minister remaining in power. But the Labour leader immediately ruled out a deal, fearing a repeat of the damaging 2015 election campaign when the Tories pictured Ed Miliband in the pocket of Alex Salmond. Miss Sturgeon said: ‘If the Parliamentary arithmetic lends itself to the SNP being part of a progressive alliance to keep the Tories out of Government then the SNP will seek to be part of that as we said in 2015. But she said that – unlike 2015, when she proposed a similar alliance there was little prospect of Labour winning enough seats to keep the Conservatives out.
‘I’m not sure there are many people who think Labour are going to be in a position, on their own or with anybody else, to form a government. Only the SNP will stand between Scotland and an increasingly hard-line and Right-wing Tory government.’ Mrs May seized on the offer of a pact at Prime Minister’s Questions, when she told MPs that Miss Sturgeon, Mr Corbyn and Lib Dem leader Tim Farron ‘want to unite together to divide our country, and we will not let them do it’.
During a campaign speech in Bolton, the Prime Minister added: ‘ There is a very clear choice at this election – it’s a choice between strong and stable leadership under the Conservatives or a weak and unstable coalition of chaos led by Jeremy Corbyn.
‘The other parties are lining up to prop up Jeremy Corbyn – we’ve seen it with the Liberal Democrats and Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish Nationalists.’
In a desperate bid to stop the damaging claim, Mr Corbyn said: ‘There will be no coalition deal with the SNP and a Labour government.
‘The SNP wants to break up the UK; it has no interest in making it work better. Independence would lead to turbocharged austerity in Scotland – not progressive politics.
‘Nicola Sturgeon is trying to convince people in Scotland that you can get rid of the Tories by voting SNP. She couldn’t be more wrong. Only Labour or the Tories can win this election and voting Labour is the only way to remove Theresa May from office. If you want progressive policies that deliver social justice, fairness and equality then you should vote for the Labour Party.’
Miss Sturgeon’s incendiary offer came as she claimed the Prime Minister’s efforts to prevent a second Scottish independence referendum will ‘crumble to dust’ if her party wins the most seats north of the border.
‘If the SNP wins this election in Scotland and the Tories don’t, then Theresa May’s attempt to block our mandate to give the people of Scotland a choice over their own future when the time is right will crumble to dust,’ she said.
‘I will be campaigning and leading a campaign in this election to return each and every one of the constituencies to the SNP that we won in 2015 and having a go at the other three as well.’
But Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said she would make ‘damn sure’ the SNP did not return 56 out of the 59 Mr Farron said his party, which has just nine MPs, would not consider an electoral deal with Labour because Mr Corbyn was ‘electorally toxic’.