THE SNP has warned it could be “forced into opposition by parties undermining the election outcome” in Edinburgh as unionist councillors draw up plans to block the biggest party from running the city.

The SNP, which ran Edinburgh City Council in coalition with Labour over the last five years, has drawn up a detailed policy programme to form a minority administration with the Scottish Greens. Local members of the Scottish Greens will vote on the plans tonight ahead of Thursday's crunch full council meeting.

But Labour are hoping to retain power through a minority administration, along with support from the LibDems, with the two parties locked in discussions. But if those plans are to succeed, the strategy would likely need the support of the Conservatives.

A Labour source said the talks with the Lib Dems were “going well” and the detail was being ironed out. They also claimed that the SNP appeared to be “in denial” about the prospect of losing control of the city.

But the LibDems, who doubled their number of councillors in the election, remain unsure about how serious Labour’s group leader, Cammy Day, is about taking power.

Despite progress expected to be made today, an insider said some LibDems councillors were concerned by the “last minute” nature of Labour’s plans.

They added that the SNP and Greens were “clearly moving in a much more co-ordinated and determined manner”, while Labour was “still looking confused and uncertain”.

The source said: “Labour certainly needs to show more leadership if they want to run the Capital city.”

The SNP have put pressure on the LibDems and Conservatives to be open about their intentions if a unionist co-operation was to block their plans to run the city with the Greens.

Adam McVey, leader of the SNP on Edinburgh City Council, said: “If they unite to put Labour into power, by actively voting for a Labour administration, the Tories and Lib Dems will be signing up to the Labour group’s agenda and will be accountable to the people of Edinburgh for what that administration delivers. This is especially true for any party that takes up paid administration positions.

“We want to work constructively together, but our residents also deserve a transparent and accountable council, so they should be told the detail in these deals. People will want to know, for example, if policies around no compulsory redundancies and publicly owned provision of services are being protected by all three parties involved.

“If we are forced into opposition by parties undermining the election outcome, we will use our weight in the chamber to hold all three parties to account for the actions of a Conservative and Liberal Democrat-supported administration, on their policies and on what they deliver for our residents.”

Mr Day was appoached for comment.