Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has ruled out forming an "progressive alliance" with the SNP after the general election, BuzzFeed News has learned.
At a meeting of Labour national executive committee (NEC) on Wednesday, Corbyn announced that he would not be entering an alliance with Nicola Sturgeon's party, according to multiple sources close to the Labour leader.
Earlier on Wednesday, Sturgeon told journalists outside the Westminster parliament that she'd "seek to be part" of an alliance with Labour if the election result turned out in such a way that it would keep the Conservatives out of power.
The prospect of an alliance between the SNP and Labour dominated the 2015 general election campaign, as the Conservatives produced billboards showing then Labour leader Ed Miliband in Sturgeon's pocket.
An NEC member who was at Wednesday's meeting said: "[Corbyn] ruled out a progressive alliance with SNP on the grounds that a look at their record shows they are not a progressive party and they are not an anti-austerity party in Holyrood."
Corbyn later confirmed that he would not seek to enter an alliance with Sturgeon's party, saying they "talk left" in Westminster but "act right" in the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh.
"A genuinely progressive party would not refuse to introduce a 50p top rate of income tax on the richest," said Corbyn. “The SNP wants to break up the UK; it has no interest in making it work better. Independence would lead to turbo-charged austerity in Scotland – not progressive politics.
“Nicola Sturgeon is trying to convince people in Scotland that you can get rid of the Tories by voting SNP. She couldn’t be more wrong. Only Labour or the Tories can win this election and voting Labour is the only way to remove Theresa May from office.
"If you want progressive policies that deliver social justice, fairness and equality then you should vote for the Labour Party."
The Labour leader added: "Why vote for a poor imitation, that has overseen an increase in child poverty and the biggest increase in the working poor since devolution, when you can have the real thing in the progressive Labour party?"