SNP only party Russell Findlay rules out of post-election deal

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay has said he would “never, ever work with the SNP” but refused to rule out deals with other parties after next year’s election.

Speaking exclusively to Holyrood, the MSP said his main aim for next year was to “get the SNP out of power” and it would be “silly” for him to refuse to work with others to achieve it.

He said it would be “complete folly for me at this point to start speculating on what that might look like” but after the election “it would be sensible to start thinking about what that looks like practically”.

According to recent polls, the SNP is on track to remain the largest party at Holyrood after the Scottish Parliament election next May – despite support for the party being significantly lower than previous elections.

Meanwhile the Scottish Conservatives look set to lose a sizeable number of MSPs, which could take them into third or fourth place.

The rise of Reform in Scotland is squeezing support for both Findlay’s party and Scottish Labour.

The Scottish Conservative leader said he was a “realist” and accepted it was unlikely he would be the next first minister.

Asked what his ambition was for next year, he said: “Despite John Swinney having a spring in his step and this sudden belief that he's going to hang about for a decade, we need to get them out for the collective good of society, we need to get the SNP out of power.”

On doing a deal with Scottish Labour or the Scottish Liberal Democrats, he added: “If the Lib Dem leader or Anas Sarwar or whoever it might be wants to speak to me, it would be silly to say no. If they find that difficult, that's up to them. But again, it’s all very speculative, isn’t it?”

While he did not rule out doing a deal with Reform, he was sceptical about such an agreement because Nigel Farage has previously told The Times he would rather see Swinney than Sarwar become first minister.

The Reform leader said he was “not that worried about the SNP” because “Scotland is not going to leave the United Kingdom”.

Findlay said: “He might not worry about the SNP, but I do worry about the SNP. Maybe it’s because I live here and I’ve had to live under the SNP for a lot of my adult life, I see the damage they’re doing to the city I live in, Glasgow, and across the entire country.”

In particular, he hit out at the SNP’s handling of government finances, accusing it of “gargantuan” waste.

He said: “If you gave me 10 minutes in St Andrew’s House, in the filing cabinets, I’d find tens of millions of pounds worth of savings.

“That’s about a party that’s so complacent and so arrogant that they’re not willing to not knock heads together, they’re not willing to challenge why money is spent in a particular way.

“The mis-spending in Scotland is utterly ridiculous and I think any serious political party, any credible government, will be able to identify that and do something about it.”