Labour ‘couldn’t imagine’ SNP deal

LABOUR is “not planning alliances” with the SNP “or anyone”, the party’s national campaign co-ordinator said yesterday.

Pat McFadden said a change in SNP leader “doesn’t make much difference” after Humza Yousaf announced his resignation as First Minister last Monday.

Asked if he “could imagine” Labour and the SNP working together if his party does not win a majority at a General Election, McFadden told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips “no”.

He said: “Our aim is to win a majority, to govern, to meet the mood for change, and we’re not planning any alliances or pacts with anyone.”

Phillips questioned if Labour would “rule-out the idea of co-operation” with the party, and McFadden responded: “You can put it to me from now until Christmas and my answer will be the same.

“We’re going to aim for a majority government, we’re going to meet that mood for change, we’re not planning on any pacts or alliances with anyone and I think, after the results of the last few days, we go into that fight with no complacency, but with a belief and confidence that we’ve seen in the votes that were cast a few days ago [in the English local elections].”

Asked if he would have been happier if the SNP had kept Yousaf as leader, McFadden said: “I don’t think it matters who the SNP leader is now, because I think there has been a big change.

“In Scotland just as in England there is a mood for change. In Scotland, just as in England, there is a tired government.

“One of the big changes that has happened, apart from the scandals surrounding the SNP over the last year, is the issue of lack of delivery of the basic job of the Government around health, education, and other services ... people are looking at delivery and there is a mood for change which a party that has been in power as long as the SNP have cannot meet.”