Labour back Nats to manage council
Parties do deal to form new administration
SNP and Labour councillors have put a fiery five years of political rows behind them to form a majority administration at Stirling Council.
On Wednesday evening the SNP and Labour confirmed a partnership agreement to run the council, with SNP councillor Scott Farmer elected council leader and Labour’s Danny Gibson depute leader.
And the deal has left Stirling Conservatives smarting after the initial euphoria when their number of councillors more than doubled.
At the May 5 count the Tories increased their number of councillors from four to nine, equalling the SNP total, with Labour dropping from eight to four seats and the Greens retaining their single seat.
It had been widely expected that Labour would team up with the Tories again, as was the case in 2012, but the Tories’ elation was short-lived.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale had warned all her party’s councillors they risked suspension if they formed any coalition with the Conservatives.
The Tories’ fate may also have been sealed after their group was hit by a controversial tweeting scandal within days of the results.
That involved two newly-elected councillors, Alistair Majury and Robert Davies, who have since been suspended from the party over alleged inappropriate posts on social media.
They were at neither Wednesday’s council meeting nor the previous Thursday’s meeting when an attempt was made to form an administration.
While Wednesday’s meeting was a civilised affair, Tory group leader Neil Benny said afterwards: “The Labour Party were keen to continue to work with the Conservatives as they have done since 2012 until they got their marching orders from Kezia Dugdale.
“The Labour councillors in Stirling were terrified of the reaction of their masters in Edinburgh, regardless of what was good for Stirling.
“Now we have a Nationalist administration that will put independence first, propped up by Labour councillors who will put their party first.
“Only the Conservatives on the council will put Stirling first and we will hold this unprincipled alliance to account.”
Labour group leader Danny Gibson defended his position, saying: “The voters across the Stirling Council area decided who should represent them at the ballot box and they decided that no one party should have a majority.
“We therefore took our role following the results as a group of four members seriously and engaged in constructive dialogue with both the SNP and Conservatives.
“We have had to decide on the option we best believe will deliver on Labour’s values and priorities of socialism, equality and solidarity for the many and not the few. We will be working hard to deliver on those principles right throughout the work of Stirling Council for the people we represent.
“We will remain focused on serving the local area and won’t have council business distracted by national, political or constitutional issues.
“Whilst there is much that we disagree with the SNP on at a national level, there is much that we can achieve together locally.”
Council leader Scott Farmer said: “People in Stirling voted for political parties to work together in the local government election on May 4 and I am delighted that successful negotiations between the SNP group and Labour have reached an agreement whereby we can begin to work to deliver for every person and every community in the Stirling area.
“From the outset the SNP stated that we would never commit to doing any deal that put the Tories in charge of our local services and it is the case that there is enough common ground between the Stirling SNP and Stirling Labour manifestos which will allow us to work constructively in partnership.
“This isn’t about party politics. This is about delivering what’s best for local people.
“The Tories put forward council candidates in Stirling that were clearly not fit for office and two of their councillors have now been suspended from the party, failing to even show face at the statutory meeting of council.”