NICOLA Sturgeon has defended her readiness to work with Jeremy Corbyn to secure another independence referendum despite his record on anti-Semitism.
The First Minister was repeatedly challenged about her desire to work with a minority Labour government at the launch of the SNP’s manifesto in Glasgow.
She said Mr Corbyn had "unequivocally and emphatically" has failed to get to grips with anti-Semitism is his party, while setting out a list of demands she wanted from him in a hung parliament.
The Scottish Tories said the First Minister was “turning a deaf ear” in her pursuit of independence.
On Tuesday, the Chief Rabbi made an unprecedented intervention in the election by attacking the UK Labour leader’s failure to root out anti-Jewish hatred in his party.
Ephraim Mirvis said a “new poison sanctioned from the very top” had taken root in Labour under Mr Corbyn, and warned the “very soul of our nation is at stake” in the election.
Mr Corbyn refused four times to apologise for his record on tackling anti-Semitism in a brutal interview with the BBC’S Andrew Neil on Tuesday eveing.
Paul Edlin, president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, said he would be “very concerned” if Ms Sturgeon did a “deal with the devil” by putting Mr Corbyn into power.
However at her manifesto launch, Ms Sturgeon made it clear she would be willing to work with Mr Corbyn to secure Indyref2, despite the furore.
Asked why she would go against the warning from the Chief Rabbi, she said: “I deplore Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of leadership on anti-Semitism and I do not condone in any shape of form that failure on the part of him and the Labour party to eradicate that from their ranks.
“I don’t get to choose the leaders of the UK parties. We’re in a Westminster election. If there’s a hung parliament and the SNP is in the position of holding the balance of power we have to decide how best to exercise that.
“We would not be signing any blank cheque to Jeremy Corbyn or any leader of the Labour party.
“I would say this to people who are understandably worried about aspects - including the one we’ve mentioned - of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
“If we are in this position, it’s because Jeremy Corbyn has managed to get himself into the position of being able to potentially form a government, and the SNP has a job to do in the circumstances of making sure the right values, the right policies, the right priorities are to the fore."
She said the SNP would demand "a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism, to Islamophobia, to any form of prejudice and racism" from any party that wanted SNP support at Westminster.
She went on: "To those worried about Jeremy Corbyn, it should give a degree of reassurance that SNP MPs with the right values and the right approach on these issues are able to apply that pressure.
“I don’t know Jeremy Corbyn personally, but I do say unequivocally and emphatically that he has failed to get to grips with this problem and this issue within his party. I deplore that and I condemn that unequivocally.
“One of the reasons I’m a supporter of independence is I would rather Scotland wasn’t in the position of having to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea for the Prime Minister of our country.
“I make no bones about that. I could never support Boris Johnson as Prime Minister for a whole host of reasons. On issues of racism and racist comments he certainly has a charge sheet of his own to answer there.
“I’d expect any Prime Minister, any candidate for prime minister, to absolutely take on these issues centrally.
“While I’d far rather Scotland was independent, I’d say to people not just in Scotland but across the UK, I can’t decide the outcome of the election in England. But if Jeremy Corbyn is in a position, and Labour are in a position, of being able to form a minority government, then better to have the influence of the SNP in there.”
Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw, who represents Eastwood at Holyrood, the seat with Scotland’s largest Jewish population, accused Ms Sturgeon of “turning a deaf ear”.
He said: “Despite saying she shares the deep concerns about Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to act on anti-Semitism, Nicola Sturgeon has made clear she will still prop him up in Number 10.
“In effect, she is turning a deaf ear. The only conclusion that can be reached is that Nicola Sturgeon is prepared to ignore everything about Mr Corbyn because he offers the only thing she really wants – a second referendum on independence.
“When it comes to Nicola Sturgeon’s nationalism, nothing must get the way of her obsession with dividing Britain – not even a deal with the most incompetent and dangerous opposition leader in recent British political history.”
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