Watson: Labour pact with SNP a gift to Tories

LABOUR deputy leader Tom Watson said a pact with the SNP would be an “electoral dead end” and a “gift to the right”, as he delivered one of the most hardline speeches yet on the issue.

Watson told the Scottish Labour conference in Perth that the idea of a “progressive alliance” was a “road to nowhere”, citing the 2015 General Election campaign. During that campaign, the SNP suggested it could help Ed Miliband’s path to Downing Street by forming an informal coalition with Labour to lock the Tories out of power. Watson told delegates: “The Tories demonised the idea of...Labour propped up by the SNP – and used it as an electoral stick to beat us...The mere suggestion of a progressive alliance is an absolute gift to the right...The parties that supporters of the progressive alliance would hook us up with are actually no such thing.”