Nats want heads to roll
SNP politicians have rounded on the new Labour minority administration accusing them of a back room deal with the Conservatives.
Airdrie and Shotts MSP Alex Neil called on the Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale to suspend all 32 Labour councillors in North Lanarkshire Council in the aftermath of Thursday’s meeting.
Mr Neil said:“The SNP is the biggest party on North Lanarkshire Council with 33 elected councillors to Labour’s 32, with 10 Tories and two independents.
“Despite the SNP’s offer to negotiate a deal with Labour’s leader, Jim Logue, a dirty deal was done behind closed doors between the Labour Party and the Tories to stop the SNP from being in administration.
“In return for voting in a minority Labour administration, the Tories were given the convenorship of the Audit Committee and, no doubt, numerous other undisclosed promises.
“This deal is in defiance of the democratic wishes of the vast majority of voters in North Lanarkshire. Labour voters did not vote for a deal with the Tories. Logue and his merry band have betrayed the Labour voters of North Lanarkshire. The Labour Party in North Lanarkshire has sold the jerseys to the enemy of the poor.”
During the council meeting, SNP Group leader David Stocks rejected a Labour offer to him of the £29,624 convenership of the newly created Community Safety Committee.
The SNP also turned down two minor chairs of Local Area Partnerships in Wishaw and Cumbernauld in protest of the alleged deal between Labour and the Tories.
Councillor Stocks said:“North Lanarkshire Council is now run by a Labour-Tory alliance.
“I will take no part in working with the Tories in North Lanarkshire.
“As the largest party,the SNP had formally written to Councillor Logue offering talks on a genuine left-of-centre SNP-Labour joint administration.
“Labour lacked the courage even to acknowledge or reply to the letter.”
Motherwell and Wishaw MSP Clare Adamson added: “Labour have sold out to the Tories in a desperate bid to retain power despite losing the election to the SNP.
“I shudder to think what concessions Scottish Labour have made to the Tories in respect of vital local services in order to seal this desperate deal.”
Neil Gray, the SNP’s candidate for Shotts, said: “Labour have disgracefully sold out the people of the North Lanarkshire in a desperate bid to cling out to power.”