Jeremy Corbyn forced to rule out Election ‘alliance’ with the SNP after Nicola Sturgeon called for a deal to stop the Tories
The First Minister sparked echoes of the 2015 campaign by saying she would work with Labour and the Lib Dems if the election result was close
JEREMY CORBYN was today forced to rule out an Election “alliance” with the SNP after Nicola Sturgeon called for a deal to stop the Tories.
The First Minister sparked echoes of the 2015 campaign by saying she would work with Labour and the Lib Dems if the election result was close and the “arithmetic” warranted it.
Such a deal could in theory hand Jeremy Corbyn the keys to Downing Street if Labour defy all expectations on June 8th.
But the Labour leader yesterday told the party’s ruling National Executive Committee yesterday there would be no deal with any party.
Sources claimed he told the meeting he was “100 per cent happy” to put the issue beyond doubt by ruling out any “progressive alliance”.
Theresa May last night accused the SNP of “wanting to pull the strings” of Jeremy Corbyn in her first campaign rally of the Election campaign.
And she warned that a vote for Labour would be for a "weak and unstable coalition of chaos led by Jeremy Corbyn".
"Look at the parties alligning to prop [him] up", she added.
The Prime Minister said she wanted to run an "optimistic and positive campaign" and urged voters in Bolton and beyond to give her the mandate to lead, fight and deliver for Britain.
"Stand up to the separatists who want to break up our country," she said, in a warning to Ms Sturgeon and the SNP.
Mr Corbyn began campaigning in Croydon this evening too.
MOST READ IN POLITICS
Two years ago, ex-Labour leader Ed Miliband repeatedly failed to rule out a deal with the SNP – giving the Tories a huge boost.
A poster showing Ed Miliband in Alex Salmond’s pocket was credited with triggering a decisive swing to the Conservatives in the final weeks of the campaign.
Speaking on a visit to Westminster yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon said: “If the Parliamentary arithmetic lends itself to the SNP being part of a progressive alliance to keep the Tories out of Government then the SNP will seek to be part of that as we said in 2015.”
She admitted Labour were unlikely to win anywhere near enough seats to be able to form a Government “on their own or with anyone else”.
“There will be many people across England who will see that as a matter of regret,” she said.
“My job first and foremost is to stand up for Scotland.
“Only the SNP will stand between Scotland and an increasingly hardline and right wing Tory Government.”
But in a statement, Jeremy Corbyn said tore into the SNP - and labelled it a party of the “right”.
He said there could be no progressive alliance with a party that isn’t progressive.
“The SNP may talk left at Westminster but in government in Scotland it acts right,” he said.
“A genuinely progressive party would not refuse to introduce a 50p top rate of income tax on the richest.”
He added: “There will be no coalition deal with the SNP and a Labour government.”
“Nicola Sturgeon is trying to convince people in Scotland that you can get rid of the Tories by voting SNP. She couldn’t be more wrong.
“Only Labour or the Tories can win this Election and voting Labour is the only way to remove Theresa May from office.”