A SENIOR Labour politician has criticised Anas Sarwar's opposition to the formation of any coalitions between their party and the SNP after the May elections.
Elaine Murray, the Labour leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council who has run the administration since 2017 jointly with the SNP, said the arrangement had worked well.
She said the two parties had set aside their differences on the constitution to agree a set of policies to implement.
She said any new governing deals after May 5 should be decided by parties in local areas and not be up to the party leadership to "dictate".
Asked what she thought of UK Labour leader Keir Starmer and Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, saying there should be no deals with the SNP, Councillor Murray, pictured below, said: "It disappoints me. I don't really know Keir Starmer, but I am disappointed as I have a lot of time for Anas Sarwar. I have a lot of respect for him and I think he has done well as Scottish leader.
"But it always disappoints me when they feel they need to dictate centrally - there was too much of that in Tony Blair's time.
"I think they should trust local parties. They know the local circumstances best and trust them to make the right decision for the local areas, particularly in local government."
Councillor Murray, a former MSP, is retiring from politics ahead of the election, but she said she would not advise her Labour colleagues in Dumfries and Galloway Council to rule out a deal with the SNP after May 5.
"I think the relationship [between Labour and the SNP] worked well here," Councillor Murray told The Herald.
READ MORE: Susan Aitken: Labour are very foolish to rule out a deal with the SNP
"We recognised that local government wasn't about the constitution. We stood on manifestos. We went through our manifestos and found common ground."
She added that the partnership arrangement struck by Labour and the SNP after the 2017 council elections was signed off by both parties's ruling bodies, Labour's Scottish Executive Committee and the SNP's National Executive Committee.
Asked what she would advise her party colleagues in the new council, she said: "My advice would be to think about it, to go through the manifestos."
Currently, Dumfries and Galloway Council have nine Labour and 10 SNP councillors on the 43 seat body. The Scottish Conservatives have the biggest representation currently with 16 councillors, but are not part of the administration. The remaining councillors are made up of independents, non aligned, socialists and one Lib Dem.
Councillor Murray said that with Labour standing 14 candidates and the SNP 12, neither party would be in a position to govern as a majority.
She said that should there not be a partnership deal between Labour and the SNP in Dumfries and Galloway, the likely alternative would be a Conservative minority administration.
"The Conservatives are the largest party, so the alternatives are a minority Conservative administration - which would have difficulties getting a budget through for example - or some form of partnership between Labour and the SNP," she said.
"If they were ideological Tories they could cut a lot of the services. For example we have chosen to invest £1million a year in anti-poverty measures such as the holiday hunger programmes [for school pupils].
"It could well be, that the Tories would chose not to do that and spend the money elsewhere."
Scottish Conservative MSP Miles Briggs said Mr Sarwar’s ‘no coalitions’ line was a ruse and that Labour councillors had no intention of following.
“Elaine Murray freely admits she’d rather Labour formed another coalition with the SNP in Dumfries and Galloway, than work with the Scottish Conservatives to keep the nationalists out," said Mr Briggs.
“Pro-union voters in Dumfries and Galloway, and across Scotland, have been warned that they will be betrayed by Scottish Labour.
“Only the Scottish Conservatives can be trusted to stand up to the SNP and focus on voters’ local priorities rather than Nicola Sturgeon’s constitutional obsession.”
A Labour source said: “Elaine Murray is standing down at this election and as such is a private citizen who is entitled to their views.
“Scottish Labour is fighting this election to defeat both the SNP and the Tories and deliver Labour councillors across Scotland.”
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