RICHARD Leonard, the bookies’ favourite to become the next leader of Scottish Labour, has refused to rule out taking his party into a Holyrood coalition with the SNP.

The possibility of a pact between the two parties was raised yesterday, when senior Scottish Labour MEP David Martin encouraged his colleagues to think the “unthinkable”.

The veteran politician told The Herald it was time to put to one side the bitterness between the two parties and start laying the groundwork for a potential partnership.

When contacted by The National Leonard would only say that talk of a coalition right now was a “distraction”.

His rival, Anas Sarwar, however, said he respectfully disagreed with Martin and would spend every day as leader working to “kick the SNP out of power”.

Martin’s call did find favour with former Labour MSP and minister Malcolm Chisholm who tweeted: “I like this”.

The MEP had told the paper there was a possibility neither Labour nor the SNP could form a majority in Holyrood after the 2021 elections, and suggested there was common ground between the two parties.

Martin said: “We are far away from the next Holyrood elections, but I think the groundwork should be being laid now for a potential SNP- Labour coalition that to many will seem unthinkable.”

He added that he believed there was a thawing in the bitterness between the two parties: ‘‘There are signals, very weak signals, the real hate – and it was hate – between Labour and the SNP is beginning to weaken.

“I would not quite say there is a rapprochement but there is more possibility of co-operation and working together than there has been in a long time.

“Being on the same side in the Brexit referendum has helped that.”

SNP MEP Alyn Smith said the call was a “welcome intervention”.

“I don’t think an SNP-Labour coalition is unthinkable,” he told The National. “Such a coalition currently runs Scotland’s capital.”

Speaking ahead of his official campaign launch in the Gorbals in Glasgow last night, Sarwar said: “David is one of Scotland’s most respected politicians and has campaigned tirelessly against the Tories’ reckless Brexit plans. But on this one issue, we have to disagree. I am a socialist, not a nationalist, and there is simply nothing progressive about the SNP.

“I see the misery the SNP has inflicted on my community in Glasgow and across Scotland, with £1.5 billion of cuts to local services since 2011.

“As Labour leader I will work every day to kick the SNP out of power, because we need a government that puts Labour values at the heart of Scotland’s future.”

A spokesman for Leonard said: “We are campaigning for Labour to win in 2021 – talks of pacts coalitions and hung parliaments are a distraction.”

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “We do not support a deal, pact or coalition with the SNP – we plan on replacing the Nationalists as the next Scottish government.”

A SNP spokeswoman said: “While we are always open to cooperating with other parties based on shared values, Labour remain obsessed with attacking the SNP instead of standing up to the Tories and their disastrous plans for an extreme Brexit.”

The talk of 2021 came as a new poll made grim reading for the SNP and the Tories.

Survation’s research for the Daily Mail saw support for the SNP on the regional list at 31 per cent, down 11 points on last year’s election.

The Tories were on 21 per cent, down two points.

On the constituency vote, the SNP fared better at 42 per cent, still down 4.5 points, while Labour were up two at 25 and the Tories were up four at 26 per cent.

If translated into seats, it would put the SNP on 54, still more than their rivals but nine less than at the moment. Labour would leap over the Tories back into second place, with 30 MSPs, while the Tories would sink to 24.

The Lib Dems would see their representation more than double, taking 13 seats, and the Greens would add two to their tally, taking their total to eight seats.

Effectively, if this turns out to be the final result in four years time, the current slim pro-independence majority in the parliament would be lost, with the pro-Union parties on 67 seats compared to the SNP and Greens on 62.

But the SNP’s business convener Derek Mackay was upbeat: “This poll shows that Tory bubble has well and truly burst, with the party falling into third place as their handling of Brexit goes from bad to worse,” he said.

“It follows a bad summer for Ruth Davidson, who has been exposed as a one-trick pony with no serious policies.”

He added: “Although we are a long way from another election, it is hugely welcome that after 10 years in government the SNP is recording double-digit poll leads.”

The spokesman for the Scottish Tories was also upbeat, telling the Mail: “This poll shows the shine has come off the SNP – and it demonstrates that its attempt to impose a second referendum on Scotland is now dead in the water.

“As Scotland’s main opposition party, we are determined to build on the support we’ve won”.