THE three-week unresolved row over who sits where in the House of Commons, dubbed the Battle of Buttockburn, could be about to escalate.

 

It is believed the SNP, which has been in hot dispute with Labour over its attempt to occupy the front row seats next to the official Opposition's frontbench, is now prepared to order its MPs into Parliament as early as 7am and even block Labour appointments to Commons committees to get its way.

The Nationalists, now the third party at Westminster, believe they have the right to sit in a block on the front rows, which have in recent years been occupied by Labour's left-wing rebels, including veteran Dennis Skinner. But the Labour MPs- have refused to budge.

With no agreement in sight, a senior SNP source, branding the Labour leadership "petty" for failing to come to an agreement, said: "If they want to play silly games, we'll play silly games."

He explained: "We need to take a deep breath and say: 'Do we want to be the official third party and everything that entails'? If so, we have to fight this."

The source added: "We can march our MPs to get in at 7am every day. We can block every Labour change in committees. There is a lot we can do."

Labour's Sir Gerald Kaufman, the Father of the House, has decried the SNP's attempts to dislodge some of his colleagues, branding Nationalist MPs "goons".