General Election: Nicola Sturgeon sets out SNP terms for ‘alliance’

Launching the SNP’s general election manifesto in Glasgow, the First Minister said Scotland had the power to “deprive Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party of a majority".

And if the Tory leader fails to get into Number 10, then, Sturgeon said, she would be “prepared to talk to other parties about forming a progressive alliance".

Yesterday, the SNP leader set out what her party’s terms would be in that pact.

There would, she told the activists, need to be a vote on independence, an end to austerity, an increase in health spending, and the UK making “right the cuts Scotland has suffered".

Sturgeon said: “Over a decade of austerity, the cumulative price imposed on Scotland has been a massive £13.9 billion.

“That’s how much investment in our communities and public services Scotland has lost.

“And the cost in human terms has been worse.

“That must be made right. A party seeking our support must be prepared to set out how they will repair the damage of a decade of austerity and put back money that has been lost.”

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The First Minister also repeated her promise to introduce an NHS Protection Bill to “guarantee that trade deals will not undermine the founding principles of the NHS, nor open it to profit-driven exploitation".

SNP MPs would also, she said, “demand an end to policies that are pushing people into poverty, debt and desperation".

Sturgeon added: “We will also stand up for fairer pensions. We will protect the triple lock and demand justice for Waspi women.”

Her MPs would also push for more powers to be devolved to Holyrood, including over drugs laws and employment rights, as well as the scrapping of “immoral” Trident nuclear weapons, which are currently housed on the Clyde.

On independence, the First Minister said: “It is time to take Scotland’s future into Scotland’s hands.”

“People are becoming increasingly sick of hearing Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson talking about not allowing Scottish people to choose their own future.

“I’ve got news for them: it’s not up to you.

“It is a decision for the people of Scotland and the Scottish Parliament. The democratically elected Scottish Parliament has agreed the people should be given a choice over their future.

"An unelected Tory Westminster government has no right to overturn that decision.

“So an SNP victory in this election would be a clear instruction from the people of Scotland to respect Scottish democracy.

“There must be no Westminster veto over the right of the people of Scotland to decide their own future.

“And the SNP’s message to any Westminster party seeking our support is this - if you cannot support this most fundamental of democratic principles, the SNP cannot and will not support you.”

Scottish Labour’s Lesley Laird was unenthusiastic about the prospect of forming a progressive alliance.

She said: “The spectacle of Nicola Sturgeon threatening a potential Corbyn-led Labour government with the prospect of yet another Tory government if it does not bow to her demands demonstrates yet again that the SNP’s priority is separatism, not socialism.

“If anyone was under any illusion that the SNP were a progressive party, today’s launch in Glasgow will have opened their eyes to the truth.“The SNP have demonstrated that they are masters of spin and of little else.”

Scottish LibDem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said the SNP’s manifesto was a “recipe for chaos and uncertainty.”

“The SNP don’t even want the United Kingdom to exist, so it’s no wonder that their proposals for making it better are so unambitious,” he added.