ANAS Sarwar has insisted that Labour will do no deals with the SNP following the next general election.
But the Labour leader has been ridiculed for his “no pact” commitment after ruling out deals with the Tories and SNP after May’s council elections before his councillors in Edinburgh offered the Conservatives paid jobs.
Speaking at a Fabians event, Mr Sarwar said that “Scotland deserves better than their bitterness and division” adding this is true “regardless of the outcome of the next UK General Election”.
He said: “Labour will do no deal with the SNP - no deal, no pact, no behind-closed-doors arrangement, no coalition.
“At the next election, we will be fighting for every vote and we are aiming to form a majority Labour Government.
“Should we fall short of that, and be in a position to form a minority government, the SNP will face a simple choice.
READ MORE: Anas Sarwar unveils Labour's plans to abolish House of Lords and overhaul 'wounded' devolution
“It can choose to keep the Tories in power, or choose to back a Labour government.
“And I dare Nicola Sturgeon to back the Tories and put them back in power, and see how Scotland responds.”
Mr Sarwar stressed that “the truth is the pandemic Nicola we saw on our TV screens during the pandemic and who promised to pull has through has gone”.
He added: “She has been replaced by the partisan Nicola Sturgeon who wants to pit Scot against Scot for her own obsession.
“Worse still she has taken the thank you she was given from the public in last year, and the promise she made to lead us through the recovery to instead pursue a referendum the vast majority of Scots do not want.
“The SNP is trying to drag people back into the arguments of the past because it has no ideas for the future.
“The statement from Nicola Sturgeon last week was all about the next general election and- the relevance for the SNP in it.”
But the Conservatives have claimed voters who support the Union “know they can’t trust him to keep to his word”.
Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy, said: “In the run up to May’s council elections, he could not have been clearer, repeatedly, that Labour would do no deals with the SNP.
“But no sooner had the votes been counted than Labour happily teamed up with the SNP in Dumfries and Galloway, rather than work with the biggest party on the council – the Scottish Conservatives – to lock out the nationalists.
“Anas Sarwar may try to gloss over this inconvenient truth, but pro-union voters know that only the Scottish Conservatives can be trusted to stand up to the SNP.”
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