SIR KEIR Starmer has insisted there will never be a coalition between Labour and the SNP.

Speaking during a campaign visit to Possilpark in Glasgow, he said there would be "no deal" between the two parties either for next month's council election or for a future general election. 

It comes after SNP leader on Glasgow City Council Susan Aitken said the party were "foolish" for not considering a coalition.

The Labour leader was asked what his party would do when Nicola Sturgeon asks the UK Government for a section 30 order, devolving the powers necessary for a gold standard vote on the constitution. 

Sir Keir said: ”We've come through a pandemic that has broadly seen communities supporting each other and a degree of unity which we haven't seen for quite some years. The last thing we want to do is come out of the pandemic and go back to the old argument, back to the old divisions. 

“So I'm much more interested and I think the priority should be the recovery as we come out of the pandemic and dealing with the cost of living crisis which is causing people to really struggle to make ends meet. And we've seen that here this morning. And I want to spend my time focusing on that issue rather than talking yet again, going straight back to the old constitutional arguments.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused the First Minister of playing a “game.”

“It's a game. It's all a game,” he said. “Nicola Sturgeon's timetable will always conveniently change based upon when she thinks is expedient for her to do good in this campaign and distracting from her own record. And it suits the Tories and the SNP to keep banging on about the constitution and making it a big fight."

Mr Sarwar also rejected claims by the Tory party that 25 of his candidates supported independence. 

“This is clearly a story generated in Conservative Party headquarters because they are more worried about coming second than they are about beating the SNP. 

“I've been very clear we are an unequivocally pro-UK party. I want Scotland in a reformed UK, all of our candidates are expected to abide by that.”

“Both the SNP the Tories are desperate for this election and every other election to become about that binary choice, because they're out of ideas, they're out of energy,” he added.

Sir Keir was asked if Mr Sarwar was right to rule out a coalition with the SNP in Glasgow city council. 

“No coalition,” he replied. “No coalition between Labour and the SNP at the local level or the national level and going into the general election, let me be absolutely clear, no deal going into the general election and I say it now possibly a year or two out from the general election, and no deal the other side of the general election. 

“I could not be clearer about this. And I hope that nobody has missed my very clear message on this, no deal into a general election, no deal out of a general election, full stop.”

During the visit, Sir Keir was confronted by a climate change protester, who criticised Labour's calls for "nationwide injunctions" to stop activists from disrupting the delivery of fuel to forecourts.

Just Stop Oil protests have been targeting oil refineries since the start of the month. Activists have succeeded in delaying supplies by accessing loading areas and chaining themselves to infrastructure.

Labour said the government needed to “stop standing idly by and put an end to this disruption that is causing misery for motorists."

Lauren MacDonald from Green New Deal Rising, asked the party leader why he thought she deserved to be in prison. 

She added: “The IPCC released a report last week that said we are on a trajectory for 3.2C of warming by the end of the century.

“My future doesn’t currently exist. You need to make it exist for me. That is your responsibility as a person in a position of power.”

During the questions with the press, the two men were also asked if they believed a woman could have a penis. 

“I think for 99.9 per cent of women biology matters. And of course, that's what defines them and nobody's arguing that, nobody's quarrelling with any of that. 

“There's a small minority of people who were born with a gender that they struggle with, and they don't identify with, they often go through quite a traumatic time. I think we should respect and support them in that. 

“Now that isn't to suggest for as I say, 99.99 per cent of women that biology is the determining factor, of course it is, that's plain common sense. I don't quarrel with that. But I for one don't want to leave out of account the smaller group of people who really do struggle with gender identity”.

Mr Sarwar said he agreed with Sir Keir. “You can't argue with biology. Biology is clear. I deliberately talked about sex based rights, hard fought sex based rights that women over generations have fought for, and we still got a long way to go in terms of achieving that. 

“But we also have to accept that transphobia exists and transphobia is real. And I think this attempt by some people, a minority, to try and pit community against the community is not the way to get the answer on this. So how do we protect sex based rights? How do we build on the sex based rights, but also how do we address transphobia that really does exist in our communities?”