A future Labour government would ‘work in partnership’ with the SNP at Holyrood, says Rachel Reeves

Rachel Reeves has said that if Labour is successful at the general election it will work in partnership with the SNP-led government at Holyrood.  

The shadow chancellor spoke to members of media after a Q&A session alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar at the NatWest Group building in Edinburgh.  

Asked if elected she would seek to have a meeting with Scottish finance secretary Kate Forbes, Reeves said: “Of course, we would work in partnership.

“But also looking forward to the Scottish Parliament elections shortly afterwards and [I] hope to have a Labour Government in both.”

She added: “We're only going to realise the potential of the whole UK economy if people in all parts of the UK, every nation and region, are given the opportunity to participate and play their part.  

“We would work with the government here [Scotland], and I hope in the future that a Labour government in Westminster will be able to work with a Labour government here in Scotland because there's so many opportunities there, but also [I] know it people in Scotland want change, and they want Scotland to be part of that change.  

“The more Scottish Labour MPs that we have working with a Labour government in Westminster, the more I think we can deliver for Scotland.”

Keir Starmer has already ruled out any deal between Labour and the SNP at Westminster.  

At Labour’s campaign launch in Glasgow last month, the Labour leader said: “Absolutely no deal with the SNP, obviously not going into the election, no deal the other side of the election – under any circumstances.

“And that’s not just a question of mathematics. That is because there is no way an incoming Labour government could ever work in any way with the SNP, whose only ambition is to break up the United Kingdom.”

During the Q&A session, Sarwar said that “so often” there is a “manufactured grievance” between the UK and Scottish Government.

He said: “We all have to work together, that is in our national interest. And that is the approach we would take.”

The shadow chancellor denied that there will be any return to austerity, despite warnings of an £18bn deficit by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.