Labour, Lib Dems reject bid to form alliance

The leaders of Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats have rejected private attempts to form an alliance with the Tories, Douglas Ross has said.

The Conservative leader has repeatedly made public attempts to link-up with his counterparts Anas Sarwar and Willie Rennie in a bid to stop the SNP claiming a majority in May’s election.

But he has also been rebuffed in private, after suggesting the parties sign up to three pledges ahead of the poll.

He asked both leaders to publicly say they will not support another independence referendum, they will not work with another party that supports a second referendum, and promise to work with pro-UK parties in Holyrood to “force out” the SNP if the numbers allow.

Mr Ross said: “I’ve tried. I set out a very clear set of three commitments that we could all sign up to and Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats refused to do that – they turned down my offer.

“I agree with Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats and other parties that we need to focus on our recovery, we need to focus on the NHS during this health crisis.”

He also said he was open to potentially standing down candidates in marginal seats in an attempt to shore up the pro-union vote, but such a move is now “off the table” after Wednesday’s candidate deadline passed.

He added: “The Alba Party were launched on Friday and I can see that as a real threat in this election, that it becomes dominated yet again by another independence referendum.

“I want to stop that SNP majority.”