STEEL’S COALITION CRITICISMS HIGHLIGHT LIBDEM DISCOMFORT

Attn: NEWS DESKS
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENTS


SCOTS LIBDEMS WILL REPENT AT LEISURE FOR PUTTING TORIES IN POWER


Commenting on a report that former Liberal leader Lord Steel has said the Tory/LibDem coalition government was formed in an "unseemly rush" and in an atmosphere of mayhem, SNP MP Angus MacNeil said his remarks showed that there was growing unease in Scotland that the LibDems had helped put the Tories into power – against the wishes of the people of Scotland.


Commenting, Mr MacNeil said:


“Lord Steel’s words expose a sense of great unease within the Scottish LibDems. They know the people of Scotland rejected the Tories in May and did not want a Tory government.


“In fact Tavish Scott was claiming in the election that he wanted to make Scotland a ‘Tory-free zone’. Well we see where that promise went in just a few days.


“In fact Lord Steel’s words only remind us of that phrase – act in haste, repent at leisure.


“His words will haunt the LibDems in Scotland for years to come – he has admitted that the LibDems failed to grasp the opportunity to form an alternative administration, and inflicted a Tory government on Scotland with no proper mandate north of the Border.


“Since the progressive alternative to the Con/Dem coalition was rejected by both Labour and the LibDems the clear option left for Scotland is independence, and clearly Scotland's Labour MPs prefer the Tory Osborne cuts agenda to independence."

ENDS