EVEN after proportional voting was introduced for council elections in 2007, North Lanarkshire continued to prove a Labour stronghold.

Voters here twice elected a Labour majority after the change, but that relationship with the People’s Party broke down with the independence referendum.

Despite Labour leading the No campaign, residents voted Yes, albeit by 51 to 49 per cent.

That shift was mirrored in the council election that followed in 2017, when the SNP emerged as the largest party, but only just, with 33 of the 77 councillors to Labour’s 32.

But the Unionist ties of 2014 and Labour’s determination to stay in power meant that the SNP were shut out, thwarted by what it called a “tawdry Labour-Tory alliance”.

Unlike in Aberdeen, where Labour councillors were suspended by their party for entering into a full coalition with the Tories, North Lanarkshire Labour leader Jim Logue played a cannier game.

He denied “deals of any shape, formal or loose, or any other type of arrangement with any party”.

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Yet, as if by magic, he and his deputy Paul Kelly were re-elected to their old positions thanks to the support of eight Tories and Airdrie North independent Alan Beveridge.

Tory group boss Meghan Gallacher, now an MSP, ended up as the well remunerated convener of the Audit and Scrutiny Panel.

The episode still stings the SNP, and the party is throwing a lot of energy and resources into taking over at Motherwell’s Civic Centre.

Working against it are a local reputation for infighting and the loss of activists to Alex Salmond’s Alba party, which is standing six candidates across the 21 wards.

Labour is pushing its record hard and blaming the SNP for any cuts.

“People are aware the Scottish Government has cut local authority budgets in a cost-of-living crisis,” says Councillor Kelly.

“There’s also an awareness that we as a council have delivered for residents with Club365 [year-round free school meals or payments], the largest house building projects, the fastest growing local economy.

“There’s a real sense this council is on their side.”

SNP group leader Jordan Linden says the closure of community facilities and cuts to swimming lessons, classroom assistants and environmental services are down to the council’s unholy alliance.

“We’re seeing choices being made by Labour, backed up by the Tories, that they then pin on the SNP.

“It’s convenient to blame the Scottish Government, rather than blaming the root cause, which is Conservative austerity at Westminster and political choice in North Lanarkshire,” he says But, as in 2017, the constitutional dimension means the SNP could win the battle only to lose the war.

Unionism will loom large over both the contest and the likely horse-trading after the result.

Despite Anas Sarwar opposing coalitions in public, an unspoken pact between Labour and the Tories may help keep his party in power, however much it appals the SNP.

2017 result: Con 10, Lab 32, LibDem 0, SNP 33, Ind 2, Grn 0.