The Labour co-leader of Fife Council has hinted he would accept a “working arrangement” with the SNP following May’s election, despite party bosses forbidding members from entering any coalitions with them.
Sir Keir Starmer emphatically rejected any prospect of Labour councillors working in coalition with the SNP as he visited Scotland on Tuesday.
But that pledge could make life difficult for Labour members on Fife Council, who have already been sharing power with the party for five years and are not expected to win an outright majority next month.
Speaking at Glasgow Perthshire FC’s Keppoch Park, the UK Labour leader insisted there will be no formal deals done with the SNP at any level of government.
“No coalition. No coalition between Labour and the SNP at the local level, at the national level and going into the general election,” he said.
“Let me be absolutely clear, no deal going into the general election.
“I’ll say it now, possibly a year or two out from an election, and no deal the other side of a general election.
“I could not be clearer about this and I hope nobody has missed my very clear message on this. No deal into a general election, no deal out of a general election, full stop.”
What could that mean for Fife Council’s SNP-Labour ruling group?
Scottish Labour has worked alongside Nicola Sturgeon’s party at a local level on several councils and currently holds a power sharing agreement on Fife Council.
But Labour has ruled out working with either the SNP or the Tories this time around.
The SNP says it is open to working with “councillors from other parties on progressive policies” but will not work with the Conservatives.
The political make-up of Fife Council means it is highly unlikely any party will be able to win a strong majority of the authority’s 74 seats in May.
The SNP currently holds 29 seats, while Labour has 23, the Tories have 13 and the Liberal Democrats have seven. Independents hold the final two.
A ‘working arrangement’
Labour councillor David Ross, who leads the authority alongside the SNP’s David Alexander, said his party will not be able to win a majority in Fife but hinted his group could look to establish an informal “working arrangement”.
He said: “The way the voting system works, it is very unlikely that any one party will get a majority. We certainly won’t because of the way our vote is distributed.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t be able to have a degree of control over the council.
“We’re not going to go into a coalition with anybody.
“There needs to be some working arrangement so that the council functions properly but it doesn’t need to be a coalition.”
Mr Ross continued: “The illustration I use is Northern Ireland. You wouldn’t say that Sinn Fein and the DUP are in a coalition.
“It hasn’t worked out terribly well recently but that kind of power sharing arrangement is not a coalition.”
UK Labour leader’s remarks branded ‘ludicrous’
SNP councillor David Alexander, the other co-leader of Fife Council, described Sir Keir’s remarks as “ludicrous”.
He warned a minority or weak administration leading Fife Council means officers “would not know what’s going to happen from one day to the next”.
“I think it’s absolutely bizarre,” Mr Alexander said.
“It’s highly unlikely there’s going to be a majority for any party unless you get a really huge swing.
“If anyone is going to run Fife Council as a majority, it’s going to be us, but we’d have to win 38 of the 39 candidates we’re putting up.
“I really don’t know where they’re going with this. I don’t believe for one minute that Labour just wants to sit in opposition.”
Mr Alexander said he would not rule out working with Labour again but noted his belief that election material being distributed by the party in Fife “seems to ignore the fact we’ve been in coalition for five years”.