Cole-Hamilton defends Labour support plan for Holyrood election

The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has defended the prospect of helping Scottish Labour to power at Holyrood - even if the SNP have the most MSPs after the election.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said he would rather resign as party leader than allow John Swinney to return to Bute House.

He also rejected the idea that a post-election deal with his "friend" Anas Sarwar would not be democratic.

With five MSPs the Lib Dems are currently the fifth biggest party in Holyrood.

Cole-Hamilton was speaking as part of a series of Scotcast leader interviews ahead of the Holyrood poll on 7 May.

He told the podcast: "Even though we've got a proportional system, there's a chance that the SNP are elected to near enough a majority with only 34 percent of the vote. That's an abomination.

"So I don't think there's any argument that would hold water that says one iteration or another iteration isn't democratic.

"We're all going to be in minorities. It's just how it all shakes out after."

Cole-Hamilton said there was no formal alliance or pact between the Scottish Liberal Democrats and Scottish Labour ahead of the election.

But he told Scotcast that he considered the Scottish Labour leader a friend.

He added: "When there's 129 MSPs, if you can only be friends with the people in your group, it's going to be a lonely five years. Yeah, he's a friend," he added.

In a wide-ranging interview, Cole-Hamilton also hit out at "anti-English" abuse he received and accused leading SNP politicians of failing to call it out.

He accused "outriders of the SNP and the wider nationalist movement" of "betraying" what he called John Swinney's "reasonable proposition" on independence.

The Scottish Lib Dem leader said: "I don't believe the vast majority of people who want an independent Scotland hate England, but some of them do.

"And I don't think the leadership of the SNP have called that out."

An SNP spokesperson said: "There is no place in a modern Scotland for anti-English abuse."

Scotcast's full interview with Alex Cole-Hamilton will be available as a podcast on BBC Sounds and other podcast platforms from 17:00 on Tuesday 10 March. And on BBC iPlayer from 19:00.