A NEW council administration is today moving closer as closed-doors talks continue behind the scenes at the Municipal Buildings.

Largest party Labour – who took eight seats at this month’s election – want to run the local authority as a minority administration for the next five years.

They publicly ruled out a formal coalition with the Conservatives or SNP and were later snubbed by the four independents, but it’s believed they are seeking backing for their minority group from the Tories, with talks with Councillor David Wilson under way.

It’s understood the Conservative councillor has been offered the Depute Provost position by Labour leader Stephen McCabe as he attempts to secure ‘sufficient support’ to run the council.

Councillor Wilson did not deny that he has been invited to continue in the senior civic role he held during the last term, and confirmed he is having discussions about how the council should be run.

He said: “I’m very keen to see some form of stability coming out of the election result.

“I put Inverclyde first as I’m there to represent Inverclyde and its constituents and I’ve always felt over the last 10 years that I have a duty to do what I can to support a strong and stable administration.

“I’ve always maintained the party that gets the largest number of seats has the right to the first go of forming an administration.

“I’m totally consistent on that.

“It has not and is not my intention to play politics with the situation.

“At the end of the day what our constituents want is good governance as we can achieve.”

Labour leader Mr McCabe refused to confirm or deny that Cllr Wilson had been offered the Depute Provost role and says he is fully focused on receiving enough backing to run the council.

He said: “My objective is to secure sufficient support for Labour to run as a minority administration.

“I hope to be in a position to make an announcement later this week.”

The first full council meeting of the new session will take place a week today, when councillors will be appointed to key roles such as leader, depute leader and heads of committees.