Now Nicola tries to ‘rewrite history’

NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of ‘rewriting history’ after denying the SNP worked with the Tories for four years.

When the Nationalists were in minority government in 2007-11, they sought Conservative support to pass their Budgets.

One was so heavily influenced by Tory demands it was described as a ‘Con-Nat Budget’ in Holyrood.

Finance Secretary John Swinney said at the time: ‘We had to reach out to other political parties and I make no apology for that.’

But Miss Sturgeon – who is now threatening to ‘lock the Tories out’ of Downing Street after the Election, even if they are the biggest party – tried to play down the relationship live on radio. She told Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2: ‘We didn’t have any formal arrangement with the Conservatives at all. The Conservatives sometimes voted for things we wanted to put forward.

‘The examples the Tories use of the influence they had in the Scottish parliament while we were a minority government were the small business bonus – a reduction in business rates for small businesses – and 1,000 extra police officers on the streets. They were both commitments in the SNP manifesto. We did not work with the Tories.’

But Tory MSP Murdo Fraser described this as an attempt to ‘ rewrite history’, adding: ‘The SNP, in the form of John Swinney, needed to get support for the Budget as that had to have a parliamentary majority.

‘For the first Budget, we asked for an acceleration of the small business bonus scheme, earlier than the SNP were planning; a £60million town centre regeneration fund, which was from our manifesto, they had not suggested that; 1,000 extra police officers, which they had reneged on delivering; and a review of the national drugs policy.

‘All of those Conservative pledges were conceded by the SNP in return for our MSPs voting for their Budget. It was a deal.’