Gavin Rae wrote:
“Now that it’s 100% certain that there won’t be a Labour and SNP coalition there’s only one way to beat the Tories. A vote for anyone other than Scottish Labour risks the Tories being the biggest party and David Cameron returning to Downing Street by accident. - The Scotsman
Well ???
Gav
Well Gavin,
Firstly, there was never going to be a formal coalition between Labour and the SNP - something the SNP have always made plain.
Secondly, the biggest party do not automatically form the government - something I thought the excerpt from 'Call Kaye' posted above made quite clear.
Polling suggests not much difference in the number of seats for Con and Lab, so Labour do not need to be the biggest party to form a government. All they need to be able to do is win a vote of confidence - which they will easily do with the support of the SNP, who would then continue to support a minority Labour government on a confidence and supply basis in return for some changes in currently stated Labour policy.
It is vaguely conceivable that the Labour party would rather let us have another five years of Tory rule than attempt to form a minority government, but frankly I find that a very unlikely scenario.