CRACKS in Scottish Labour are beginning to show as party figures spoke out against “grubby backroom deals” made with the Tories in council chambers across Scotland, the SNP have said.
In Holyrood on Thursday, Scottish Labour were roundly mocked over their loose pacts struck with other unionist parties after leader Anas Sarwar insisted before the local elections that the party wouldn’t enter into coalitions.
However, they did in Dumfries and Galloway which is now a shared SNP-Labour administration. Deals have also put Labour into power with Tory support in Edinburgh, Fife, Stirling and West Lothian.
A dramatic day in Edinburgh city council on Thursday saw two Labour councillors abstain from voting their own party into minority administration, with votes instead bolstered by the LibDems and Tories. The move stopped a loose SNP-Green co-operation deal, like the one formed in Glasgow, from taking control of the city chambers.
And now, one current and one former Labour MSP and a former MP have criticised the party getting into bed with the Conservative party.
It comes as the SNP blasted the “stitch-up” between unionist parties across Scotland, while the Greens called on figures criticising the deals which “locked progressive parties out” to take action.
On Tuesday, former Labour MSP Neil Findlay criticised the West Lothian Labour party branch for striking a deal with four Tory councillors and the single LibDem and Independent to form an administration and lock the SNP out.
Findlay, who was a regional MSP for Lothian from 2011 and 2021, blasted: “I am appalled to see West Lothian Labour Councillors voting Tories into office - the Tory party is the enemy of my class.
"They inflicted decades of pain on my community leaving a legacy of unemployment, ill health and poverty,it is shameful that they have been voted in by Labour.”
On Wednesday night, Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba tweeted: “The Conservative Party is an instrument of the filthy rich. They prosper when workers suffer.
The Conservative Party is an instrument of the filthy rich. They prosper when workers suffer. No Labour representative worth the name would ever put Tories in power.
— Mercedes Villalba (@LabourMercedes) May 25, 2022
“No Labour representative worth the name would ever put Tories in power.”
And former Edinburgh North and Leith MP Mark Lazarowicz described the deal in the capital as “unacceptable”.
He wrote: “An arrangement like that which is suggested here would be unacceptable not just to many Labour councillors in Edinburgh, but to many rank and file Labour Party members in the city as well.”
SNP MSP Siobhian Brown blasted Labour for “rolling over” and letting the Tories in the back door “at the first opportunity”.
She said: “Even Labour party members cannot stomach the grubby backroom deals their party has done with the Tories across Scotland. They can see these stitch-ups for what they really are as Labour ditch any principle it had left and open the door to let Tories into power.
“There will be Labour campaigners across the country disgusted after they knocked on doors for their party and did not ever imagine the councillors they helped elect would be working hand in hand with the Tories as soon as the election results came in.”
Brown also said that “cracks” are beginning to show after Sarwar’s no-deal promise was “completely shattered”.
She continued: “They have let the very architects of the cost of living crisis into power – a devastating move for communities across Scotland.
“Anas Sarwar has lost all credibility on the cost of living crisis as his party has allowed the Tories into power in a quarter of councils across Scotland – and he is also starting to lose credibility and authority with his own party as a result.”
Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell said: “Ahead of the local elections Anas Sarwar told the public that his party wouldn’t do any deals.
“After the votes had been counted Labour then set to work colluding with the Tories in authorities across the country and locking out other progressive parties in the process. It’s all well and good for a few isolated Labour figures saying this is wrong, but they’ve not yet said what they plan to do about it.
“Labour paid a heavy price after working hand in glove with the Tories in 2014 and I am sure the public will reward them similarly for this betrayal at the next election.”
The Scottish Labour party have been contacted for comment.
