Today Labour have worked with the Lib Dems, an independent, and the Tories to deny the people of South Lanarkshire the SNP administration they voted for. We are deeply disappointed with today’s result. The SNP won the highest vote share across SLC (36.9% of first preferences) and returned the highest number of Councillors (27/64).
Share of first preference votes per party across South Lanarkshire (top right)
Party makeup of South Lanarkshire Council after election (bottom right)
(Source: Ballot Box Scotland. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.)
Labour didn’t even stand enough candidates to take the Council fair and square. Clearly, their intention all along was to rely on the votes of their Tory colleagues. Labour are already downplaying and denying their grubby partnership with the Tories, despite their leader boasting they “voted in a nationalistic route” and a “unionist manner” – Labour even gave a Tory the Chair of a committee.
What this charade shows is that the new Labour-Liberal-Tory administration care more about constitutional politics than good local governance.
Cllr Cal Johnston-Dempsey 