Shadow Scottish secretary Lesley Laird has stated Labour will not do a deal with the SNP to get into power after next month’s General Election.
The deputy Scottish Labour leader and Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath candidate believes a Jeremy Corbyn-led government can be secured on December 12.
She said: “While this election was called under the guise of Brexit, three weeks in to the campaign Boris Johnson is learning the lesson that Ted Heath discovered in 1974 – that while an election may start with a single issue, the British people often have other ideas.
“The longer this campaign goes on, the more the British people are realising what is really on offer and what really is at stake.”
Independence is one such, she said.
“Ironically all the arguments why Brexit is bad for Scotland are the very same arguments that they themselves have exposed in terms of what separation would mean for Scotland through their Growth Commission.
“And that is why we can say with absolute certainty that separation from the rest of the United Kingdom would be very very bad for Scotland.
“So while the Nationalists and the Tories play tag team in whipping up further constitutional division for their own mutual purposes, Labour are clear – there will be no deals, no pacts, with anyone.
“So, Ms Sturgeon, don’t bother sitting by the phone. Labour won’t be calling.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has insisted Jeremy Corbyn’s party would have to “respect Scotland’s democratic right to choose” over any second independence referendum, and laid out a list of demands at the weekend that would have to be met if the SNP was to support a Labour minority government in any way.
She said: “I’m not asking Labour to suddenly support independence, I’m not even demanding that Labour MSPs in the Scottish Parliament vote for an independence referendum.
“I’m simply making the point that we shouldn’t find it difficult to get Westminster politicians to accept that the question of independence, the question of another referendum and on what timescale, are decisions for the people of Scotland through out democratically elected parliament.”
