SCOTLAND’S FIRST minister Alex Salmond opened talks with opposition leaders at Holyrood yesterday in a bid to rescue his government’s £33 billion budget after its defeat on Wednesday prompted the threat of a snap election.
Mr Salmond put his party on an election footing after Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens combined to reject finance secretary John Swinney’s budget proposals in what Conservative leader Annabel Goldie described as an attempt by Labour leader Iain Gray to effect “a bloodless coup” and take over as first minister.
The Tories and Independent MSP Margo MacDonald backed the minority SNP government’s spending proposals in a tied 64-64 vote, which saw the budget fall by the conventional casting of the presiding officer’s casting vote in favour of the status quo.
As Labour offered the SNP government the support it needs to pass its budget in return for some 15,600 additional apprenticeships over two years, Mr Gray accused Mr Salmond of “gratuitous scaremongering” about the possible consequences of the budget defeat and insisted there was sufficient time to pass a revised budget.
“The SNP approached the serious matter of the Scottish budget with reckless brinkmanship and arrogance – hubris, indeed,” Mr Gray said. “They chose to seek narrow political advantage rather than the broad, constructive consensus. That approach must not be repeated.”
Mr Salmond accused Labour of putting its own “narrow interest” before Scottish jobs, while Mr Swinney insisted the minority government would quit and force an early election if defeated on the budget a second time.
Few commentators detected any enthusiasm for a winter election, although one well-placed source speculated that Mr Salmond might just be tempted by the idea that he could conceivably improve his party’s position at Labour’s expense as the recession really begins to bite.
Against that, there is little evidence that prime minister Gordon Brown or the Labour Party is in shape to fight a snap election, and Mr Gray suggested that in return for concessions a re-drafted budget could go through even before the February 11th deadline in the timetable put to MSPs.
Ms Goldie insisted, however: “This was not about addressing Labour’s recession. For Iain Gray and the Scottish Labour Party, this was about trying to stage some debating chamber bloodless coup to ensconce himself as first minister.”