08:30

The Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, has threatened the Labour group on Aberdeen city council with disciplinary action if it strikes a coalition deal with the Conservatives and independent councillors in order to retain power in the city.

Dugdale had taken a more nuanced approach to the question of council coalitions than the Scottish National party leader Nicola Sturgeon, who has entirely banned SNP councillors from deals with the Tories. Scotland’s proportional representation voting system for councils makes coalitions routine; the SNP formed two with Tory councillors after the 2012 council elections.

The snap general election has made this issue very live for Labour, which had previously four coalitions with Tory groups, including in Aberdeen. On 4 May, the SNP became Aberdeen’s largest group with 19, but Labour lost eight seats to hold nine, while the Tories came second with 11 seats, up eight.

Dugdale told an election rally in Glasgow the party’s Scottish executive committee (SEC) would robustly enforce its policy to block any pacts with the Tories if they involved spending or jobs cuts. The Tories would be the lead party in an Aberdeen coalition.

She confirmed the Aberdeen Labour group submitted a deal for approval by the SEC on Tuesday night but it was refused. “It was rejected because we didn’t believe there was enough evidence the Labour group put forward that there would be no compulsory redundancies and no end to austerity,” she said.

The Aberdeen group was still trying to negotiate a deal, but Dugdale was adamant it would be rejected because “the lived reality is that the Tories are the party of austerity”.

She said: “If they do proceed with a deal with the Tories and independents, we will be writing to the Labour group in Aberdeen making clear that they’re in breach of the Labour party rule book and we will take the associated necessary disciplinary action alongside that.