SNP says majority win in Glasgow ‘possible’

It is “possible” the SNP could win a historic majority in Glasgow City Council, the authority’s leader has said.

The SNP’s Susan Aitken said the party was working to increase its numbers on what is Scotland’s largest local authority, after having fallen four councillors short of achieving this in the last local elections in 2017.

Then the SNP returned 39 councillors on the 85-member authority – making it the first time the party had won control of Glasgow.

When asked if they could win a majority in the May 5 vote, Ms Aitken said: “I think it’s possible.

“We’re certainly working for that, we’re working to increase the number of councillors we have if we can, we’ve got some key wards where we think we can improve the representation of SNP councillors.”

As part of that the SNP is working to have Glasgow’s first black female councillor elected, with Funmi Obisesan standing in the Govan ward.

However Ms Aitken said her party was “realistic” and that “majorities are incredibly difficult to get” under the STV proportional representation system used in Scottish council elections.

But she added: “We were actually only four councillors off getting a majority in Glasgow last time, obviously we are campaigning to win”.

She was speaking after she teamed up with SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to launch the SNP’s manifesto for Glasgow.

While Ms Aitken stressed the SNP are looking to win a majority on the council, she did not rule out a coalition with the Greens, with whom they have worked on council budgets.

Ms Aitken said: “We have worked well with our Green colleagues in the chamber, particularly our last three budgets have been joint SNP/Green budgets in the end, and I think they have probably been better budgets for that.

“We’ve had really mature, cross-party working for the good of the city.

“We’ve formed a basis to continue that, regardless of what shape we end up in.”

Ms Sturgeon, who took the SNP into a power-sharing arrangement with the Scottish Greens at Holyrood last year, also stressed the party was “working in the campaign for every single SNP vote and trying to get as many SNP councillors elected”.

She added: “Discussions about the formation of administrations will follow after the election. Between now and the election day our focus is on maximising the SNP vote and representation.”