JEREMY Corbyn has ruled out any post-election deal with the SNP to prop up a minority Labour government.
Ahead of the SNP conference this week, Nationalist MP Stewart McDonald raised the prospect of a possible pact between his party and Labour in the event of a hung parliament, which could be based on the scrapping of Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
The Glasgow MP told Westminster’s House magazine: "On the issue of nuclear weapons, of course, there has to be a serious discussion that says: 'You want to get rid of them, we want to get rid of them, let's work out a way we can make that happen.'
"I hope that if Jeremy's in the position to form a government - perhaps with an arrangement with the Scottish National Party - then that [scrapping Trident] should be one of the key planks of any discussion that we have. Because Corbyn agrees with us on this. He has a long and honourable history of agreeing with us on this."
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, has also referred to a “supply arrangement” with Labour.
Asked on BBC Newsnight if the price of propping up a minority Corbyn government would be the promise of a future second independence referendum, the Highland MP replied: “Of course, we would seek to have a programme enacted in government. We may look to do that on the basis of a supply arrangement but that would be the basis on which we would look at such an arrangement.”
However, when the possibility of a post-election Lab-SNP deal was raised with the Labour leader’s spokesman, he forcefully knocked down the idea.
“As Jeremy made clear during the last election campaign there will be no pacts or coalitions involving a Labour government led by him,” he declared.
Asked if a confidence and supply deal would be regarded as a pact, the spokesman replied: “It’s clearly a pact.”
Meanwhile, Mr Blackford rejected the idea, suggested by his colleague, Joanne Cherry, that a “democratic event” such as an election in Scotland would be enough to trigger Scottish independence.
When the Edinburgh MP’s suggestion was put to the party leader, he replied that the SNP’s policy was to “win a mandate [for a second independence poll] based on a referendum”.
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