Tom Gordon
THE SNP are looking to forge an informal ‘rebel alliance’ with disaffected Tory MPs to inflict more defeats on David Cameron’s government.
After a series of climb downs in recent weeks, Nationalist sources say they hope to encourage more Tories to defy their own side after the summer recess.
With a majority of just 12, Cameron can be defeated in a Commons vote if just six of his own MPs revolt and all other parties are united against him.
The SNP say the tight arithmetic has greatly empowered would-be rebels, who now realise that defiance means results rather than gesture politics.
A senior SNP source said “soundings” had convinced the party that an early spate of U-turns had “emboldened Tory MPs” unhappy about a wide-range of issues.
The source said: “To defeat the government on individual issues we need to build a united opposition and attract rebels from the Tory benches - but we are confident we will be successful as we hold this uncaring government to account."
Since the election, the Tories have delayed axing the Human Rights Act, pushed back a referendum on EU exit, and delayed a vote on English Votes for English Laws (Evel).
And last week, SNP opposition to relaxing the fox-hunting ban south of the border forced the government to delay another vote because it compounded resistance from Tory MPs.
The source predicted there would be many more opportunities to defeat the government, starting with a September vote on scrapping the purdah rules before the EU referendum.
“We will do everything we can to help build a united opposition then.”
The SNP's 56 MPs also hope to stop Tory welfare plans to make women who have a third child as a result of rape prove their circumstances to officials to qualify for tax credits.
Despite relying on Tory rebels to improve legislation, the SNP takes a draconian view of dissent in its own Westminster ranks, threatening would-be rebels with disciplinary action.
Its internal rules forbid any MP from publicly criticising any SNP decision, policy or other MP.
Scottish Tory chief whip John Lamont said: “It's become ever more evident that the SNP aren't interested in standing up for the people who voted for them. They'd rather cause division and rile the rest of the UK, in the hope this stokes up resentment, making separation more likely. That is a shameless and deceitful game.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article