NATIONALISTS have passed up the chance to seize one of Labour’s most prized councils.

SNP councillors voted against trying to end Labour’s 21-year reign in North Lanarkshire earlier this week, the Herald can reveal.

The decision was described as “disgusting” by some SNP members, who want the party to take over the council ahead of next year’s local elections.

But at a tense internal meeting, SNP opposition leader David Stocks rejected the plan.

A series of Labour resignations on the authority mean the SNP could have the numbers to replace Labour and form a new administration in alliance with rebels and Independents.

At Monday’s meeting, the SNP group in North Lanarkshire discussed whether to join the Independents and pass a no confidence vote in Labour leader Jim Logue’s administration.

It is understood local SNP MSPs Alex Neil and Richard Lyle vigorously backed the move.

However Cllr Stocks opposed it, and the SNP group endorsed his position 12-6.

One long-serving SNP member in the area told The Herald: “I was disgusted, as a party member, that we did not push for this.”

Cllr Stocks said it would been “numerically challenging” for 22 SNP councillors to run the 70-member council with 14 “malcontents” and rebels associated with past problems.

He said: “The SNP group on North Lanarkshire Council has no confidence in the current ramshackle Labour administration. Every week they are in crisis.

“However the SNP decided not to push an actual ‘no confidence’ vote because we would have been relying on support from rebel Labour councillors who have themselves let North Lanarkshire down in the past. The SNP group hope to form a stable administration serving the people of North Lanarkshire after May 2017 and running an efficient Council.

“The fresh-start prospects are good. Back in 2012, the SNP took 40 per cent of the North Lanarkshire local election first preference vote. The dramatic rise of the SNP nationally over the last two years and Labour’s decline all points to big SNP gains next May.”

However with more Labour resignations expected, the pressure on the SNP to take control in North Lanarkshire is expected to grow.

A similar coup may also be possible in Glasgow soon.

In August, the SNP ceded control of North Ayrshire Council to Labour after Nicola Sturgeon’s father failed to get elected in a by-election, costing Ms Sturgeon’s mother her post as provost.