Left wing pact with Lib Dems 'impossible'

Published on Sunday 16 May 2010 00:33

LABOUR MSPs have vowed that another Lib-Lab pact at Holyrood after next year's elections is "impossible" after Nick Clegg's deal with David Cameron last week.

Polls are suggesting that the two Scottish parties could be in a position to renew a pact that ran the country from 1999 until the SNP's victory in 2007.

But several MSPs are privately warning that they cannot contemplate a deal with the Liberals if they are part of a Conservative government at Westminster.

The party is also talking up the likelihood of minority rule at Holyrood, having watched the SNP survive a full term despite having fewer than half of the MSPs at the parliament.

The Lib Dem deal with the Tories at Westminster last week prompted Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray to accuse the party's former coalition allies of having "done a deal with the devil".

One senior Labour MSP said: "It is impossible to imagine us having a coalition with them while they're in with the Tories."

The most recent polls on Holyrood voting intentions suggest Labour is on course for 47 seats, the SNP for 40, with the Lib Dems on 21 and the Tories on 18. The SNP currently has 47 seats, and has run Holyrood without going into full coalition

A spokesman for the Labour party insisted last night that no formal decision had been made on whether to rule out a deal with the Lib Dems.