David Cameron is demeaning himself and his office by endangering the union in an attempt to stay in Downing Street, Ed Miliband has said.
Instead of confronting the SNP, the Labour leader said, Cameron was talking them up to highlight the threat of a hung parliament and persuade voters to back a majority Tory government.
In a vitriolic attack, he said the Conservative tactics of seeking to divide England from Scotland showed he would stop at nothing and say anything to get elected.
His remarks at a rally in Manchester came after the former Conservative minister Lord Forsyth described Cameron’s tactics as dangerous.
Earlier, the former prime minister Sir John Major had echoed the assault on Labour’s likely dependence on the SNP, saying a minority Labour government relying on the SNP would lead to mayhem.
Labour has been privately hoping that the Tory-stoked controversy would go away, but emboldened by Forsyth’s intervention and the speech by Major, Miliband decided to launch a full-frontal reprisal.
“David Cameron is setting one part of part of the UK against another. That is dangerous. He is talking up the SNP chances and not taking them on. That is dangerous,” he said.
“The reality is that he now believes that his only route to success and getting back into power is the success of the Scottish National party. I want the Scottish National party to fail, he wants them to succeed and that is a big difference between us.
“I have to say to Conservatives, frankly, I think they should tell the prime minister to stop because he is demeaning his office, he is demeaning himself, he is demeaning those people he sends out on his behalf, and frankly, I think it is threatening the integrity of the United Kingdom.
“I think there are right-thinking Conservatives right across the country who feel deeply queasy about what he is doing. I think it says something about his campaign because he’s had the kind of campaign where he will say anything and stop at nothing, and I don’t think that’s what people want in a prime minister.”
The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said Major’s remarks about her party representing a threat amounted to an “affront to democracy”.
With a hung parliament appearing to be the most likely outcome on 7 May, and the SNP poised to send a record number of MPs to Westminster, Sturgeon could be in a position of real influence across the UK. Major claimed that the nationalists represent “a real and present danger” to the future of Britain, and he urged voters to turn their backs on a minority Labour government propped up by Sturgeon’s party.
A partnership between Labour and the SNP would be a “recipe for mayhem” with Miliband subjected to “a daily dose of political blackmail” from nationalists who would “create merry hell” in the hope of promoting the breakup of the United Kingdom, Major said.
Sturgeon hit back, saying: “Some of the comments we’re hearing in the media this morning from Tory politicians like John Major are actually an affront to democracy.” The former prime minister’s comments were “silly, over the top and frankly they don’t show him in a particularly good light”.
She added: “These are the same politicians that during the referendum campaign urged Scotland to lead the UK not leave the UK. Now they appear to say Scotland’s voice should only be heard if we say the things they want us to say and vote the way they want us to vote.
“My message to John Major is Scotland’s voice deserves to be heard in whatever way the Scottish people choose, and voting SNP means Scotland’s voice will be heard more loudly and strongly at Westminster than it has ever been heard before.
“I can understand why that message of standing up for ordinary people not just in Scotland but across the UK might offend John Major as an ex-Tory prime minister, but I think it’s a message that will continue to win support right across Scotland.”
Cameron rejected the charge that he was stoking the SNP, saying: “I am responsible for lots of things. Heck, I am the prime minister, I am responsible for everything. But I am not responsible for the fact that the Labour party has failed to get its message across in Scotland.
“The rest of the country does have to wonder, what is the price that they will pay? I fear for our country if this were to happen.”
Cameron said the SNP would want people to feel by 2020 that “the country doesn’t work, that the government does not work, that the country should break up”.
“By raising this I am not only raising the issue and the fear that people have that money will be sucked out of areas like this,” he said. “I am also raising the point that we care about our UK, I care passionately about it, don’t let the SNP into government of the UK because they would try to break it up.”
