AN SNP bid to force East Lothian’s Labour administration to create a cross-party leadership was thwarted after Conservative councillors backed their Labour colleagues.

SNP councillors wanted the Labour Group, which formed a minority administration after taking nine of the 22 seats available at the last council election, to include members of opposition parties on its cabinet, which has the power to make decisions on a range of policy issues without needing support from other councillors

Currently the cabinet is made up of six Labour councillors.

But a motion brought forward by the six serving SNP councillors at a council meeting was dismissed after the Conservatives, who make up the official opposition with seven members, refused to support it.

Instead, they accused the SNP of “playing politics”.

Councillor Jane Henderson, Opposition leader, said she believed her group was holding the Labour administration to account effectively without forcing them to give them a place on cabinet.

She said: “While the SNP plays politics about what meetings they attend and which committees they sit on, the Conservatives in East Lothian are getting on with the job of effectively holding the Labour administration to account.

“Under the current structure, the Conservative Group has secured £2 million extra investment for our roads, opposed county-wide parking charges and kept rural schools open.

“Our record is one of strong, constructive opposition, while the SNP seeks to frustrate the work of the council to avoid answering questions about SNP cuts to core local government finance. It’s the SNP’s attitude, not the council structure, that needs to change.”

The decision not to back the motion was met with astonishment by SNP Group leader Councillor Stuart Currie, who said the wording of the motion was identical to one presented by Conservative councillors in Falkirk to successfully win places on that council’s SNP minority administration cabinet.

Former Conservative Group leader Brian Small, who resigned earlier this year, claimed at the time it was never made clear to new Conservative councillors that there was no need for a minority administration to form a cabinet and that, in fact, East Lothian was one of only a few local authorities to do so – his claim was denied by council officials.

Mr Currie said the Conservatives’ decision was “astonishing”.

He said: “It means, bizarrely, that the Conservatives have voted to have less influence, not have voting members on the cabinet. The Tories say they are content for Labour to have 100 per cent of the votes on cabinet when they only have 41 per cent of the seats won at the election. I find that astonishing.”