Holyrood 2016: SNP to go it alone as Nicola Sturgeon rules out coalition
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Ms Sturgeon secured 63 seats â just two away from overall control â in a win that sees the party make history by being the first to get three consecutive terms in government in post-devolution Scotland.
Speaking on Friday after the results had been announced she ruled out a formal coalition.
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Hide AdâWith such a large number of MSPs elected I do not intend to seek any formal arrangement with any other party,â she said. She added she was encouraged by the âpersonal mandateâ she has received to implement a âbold and ambitious programme for governmentâ.
She said: âThe SNP will make our case with passion, with patience and with respect. But our aim is to persuade, not to divide. We will always respect the opinion of the people â now and in the future â and we simply ask that other parties do likewise.â
She also added that education will be the defining priority of her tenure as First Minister, claiming: âI expect to be judged on it.â
Prime Minister David Cameron phoned Ms Sturgeon to congratulate her after the SNPâs victory. It was agreed the two governments would work together âconstructivelyâ, with a focus on the steel industry, a Number 10 spokesman said.
The Scottish Conservatives under leader Ruth Davidson are now Scotlandâs main opposition with their best ever result of 31 seats knocking Kezia Dugdaleâs Labour with 24 seats in to third. Opposition parties look set to line up against Ms Sturgeon on several policies, including laws aimed at tackling trouble at football matches and flagship cuts to airline taxes. She will also come under pressure to axe or halt controversial proposals to introduce a ânamed personâ for every child in Scotland.
Ms Sturgeon will also face a challenge when it comes to getting her governmentâs budget through Parliament. Her dilemma will be whether to attempt to strike a deal with the high-tax Green and Labour parties or do the unthinkable and work with the low-tax Tories.
In her statement she said: âElection campaigns inevitably focus on differences and dividing lines but I believe that if we choose to find it, there is common ground aplenty to build on.â
Ms Davidson wasted no time in warning that Ms Sturgeon now faces a major headache on a range of flagship issues at Holyrood.
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Hide AdShe said: âWe will be ensuring that we make the Parliament work not just for us as an opposition party but we will be making it work for the people of Scotland and really, I hope, subject the SNP government to the scrutiny that theyâve not had in the past five years â and the sort of scrutiny, challenge and debate that is healthy in any Parliament and any democracy.
âOur manifesto specifically set out a series of issues and campaigns which we pledged to focus on in opposition.
âI and my team will now aim to deliver on these aims â demanding more funding for our colleges, supporting people suffering from mental ill-health and forcing change to the wrong-headed Named ÂPersons law.â
The Tory leader also indicated she would push for reform of the Holyrood committee system, amid concerns they were effectively under the control of the SNP majority in the last Parliament.
âI would seek to have discussions on how we can review the apparatus of the Parliament and make it better,â she said. âItâs an imperative that we start that now.â
The final week of the campaign was dominated by the prospect of another independence referendum, with Ms Sturgeon indicating she thought it could happen in the next five years. Pro-independence parties still dominate, with the 63 SNP MSPs combining with the six Greens to pass the 65-mark needed for a parliamentary majority.
But Ms Davidson said the SNPâs failure to win a majority draws a line under that. âWhatever claims the SNP were pursuing with regard to constitutional brinkmanship over the next five years have now been utterly shredded. No mandate, no majority, no cause â the SNP must now let Scotland move on.â
Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, who defied expectations to win the North East Fife seat from the SNP, said the âcreeping arroganceâ of the SNP would have to come to an end.
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Hide AdâThey need to change their attitude â theyâre going to have to have a pretty big handbrake turn in terms of their approach to politics.â
He also called for the new administration to draw a line under the constitutional bickering. âTheyâve got to make a clear and unambiguous statement that another independence referendum â must be off the table for the next five years in order to respect the referendum result and this result.â
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