David Cameron has said it was justifiable for the Scottish Tories to form an unofficial alliance with Alex Salmond’s first minority government, despite repeatedly accusing Labour of plotting a “coalition nightmare” with the SNP.
Before a working breakfast of haggis, egg and toast with Scottish Widows executives in Edinburgh, Cameron said it was “right at the time” for Annabel Goldie, then Scottish Tory leader, to strike a series of deals with the Scottish National party government, including voting for every SNP budget, in return for policy concessions.
The prime minister and the Tories have stoked fears of a Labour-SNP alliance at Westminster, publishing attack ads showing Ed Miliband in Salmond’s top pocket, and repeatedly pressing Miliband to rule out any formal or informal deal with the SNP.
While failing to rule out an informal vote-by-vote deal with the SNP, Labour says the Tories are guilty of hypocrisy. Salmond relied consistently on the 17-strong Tory group to vote through every budget when he ran his first minority government from May 2007 with just one seat more than Labour.
A willing ally, Goldie won deals from Salmond on extra police officers, new drug rehabilitation programmes, extra cash for rundown town centres and zero business rates for small businesses.
Cameron denied that the two situations were comparable: “I think it’s very different in the United Kingdom parliament to do a deal with the SNP. They want to break up the country the UK parliament is the sovereign body of.
“I think it’s very different. Annabel Goldie had a very clear rule: what she did in the Scottish parliament was right at the time and she had a red line that anything that threatened the integrity of the UK she wouldn’t take part in.
“As I say, this is different. This is the UK parliament and this would be forming an alliance with a party that simply has one aim and that is to break up the country the United Kingdom parliament is the sovereign body of.”
During the referendum campaign, Goldie accused Salmond of hypocrisy after the then SNP leader accused Labour of betraying Scotland by working in alliance with the Tories in the Better Together anti-independence campaign.
She told the Guardian: “When his political fate depended on us, he didn’t think twice before seeking and taking our support. It is quite extraordinary that he’s now doing a complete volte-face and now proclaims that the Tories are the worst things on the earth.”
While the Scottish Green party agreed to back Salmond’s government in exchange for new policies on green energy, transport and home insulation, the Greens brought Salmond’s administration to the brink of collapse by refusing to support one budget.
Cameron said he was in Scotland as part of a whirlwind election tour of all four parts of the UK on Tuesday to urge voters to back the Tories. “This is the most important election in a generation,” he said. “We have got a very clear message: if you want a non-socialist alternative to the SNP there’s only one choice and that’s the Conservatives led by Ruth Davidson [the Scottish Tory leader].”
He said the government needed to continue with its long-term economic plan, which was working. “Otherwise we could have Ed Miliband in Downing Street, or Ed Miliband in Downing Street propped up by the SNP, which thinks the only thing wrong with Ed Miliband is he doesn’t want quite enough tax, spending, debt, unlimited welfare and weakening of Britain’s defences.”
