Ed Miliband has ruled out forming a coalition with the Scottish National party after the general election as he moved to close off a Tory campaign based on the warning that Labour would join forces with a party committed to the break up of the UK.
Amid anger in the Labour party at the prime minister’s claim that Miliband is planning a “despicable” bid to assume power on the coattails of the nationalists, the Labour party said there would be no SNP ministers in any government led by him.
Speaking in Pudsey, the Labour leader accused the prime minister of seeking to scare people. Miliband said: “Labour will not go into coalition government with the SNP. There will be no SNP ministers in any government I lead.”
He added: “The Tories, the party that haven’t won a majority for over 20 years, are now running a misleading campaign based on the idea of a Labour-SNP coalition. As I said on Thursday night, this idea is nonsense.
“It will not happen ... In continuing to repeat this claim, the Conservative party and David Cameron are simply trying to scare people.
“This episode also proves something else about David Cameron: he leads a Conservative party that has given up on the Scottish people; a Conservative party that now simply wants to use Scotland as a political device; a Conservative party that does not even try and pretend it can represent the whole country.
“A Conservative party that has given up on winning a majority. And the real threat to working families across our country lies in the Conservative party being in government.”
Miliband’s remarks were carefully calibrated to make clear that the SNP would have no role in a UK government led by him. But he stopped short of ruling out a less formal deal amid fears in the Labour leadership that this could raise questions about the legitimacy of Scottish MPs in Westminster.
The Tories are likely to challenge Labour to rule out any involvement with the SNP, formal or informal, after Nicola Sturgeon used a speech in London to raise the prospect of a “looser arrangement” with the SNP.
The Scottish first minister declined to go into details but said this could cover a “confidence and supply” arrangement in which the SNP would support a Labour Queen’s speech (confidence) and budget (supply), without joining the government.
Speaking at the London School of Economics, Sturgeon said: “I can’t for the life of me see why Labour wouldn’t want to contemplate working with the SNP to keep the Tories out of office. As long as there are more SNP and Labour MPs than there are Tory MPs we can lock the Tories out of government. There is no question about that.”
Labour has ruled out a coalition with the SNP amid fears among Scottish Labour MPs that the prospect of a coalition undermined one of Labour’s central arguments as it fights against a historic surge to the nationalists – that a vote for the SNP would help Cameron remain in Downing Street by reducing the number of Labour MPs. But the Guardian reported on Monday morning that Labour is fearful of ruling out a looser relationship with the SNP for fear of questioning the legitimacy of Scottish MPs at Westminster.
Sturgeon made clear that she is alive to these arguments as she outlined the SNP’s position in a hung parliament in which it held the balance of power. The SNP would never form any alliance with the Tories; it regards a coalition with Labour as highly unlikely but it would not rule out a looser arrangement to support a Labour-led government.
Sturgeon said: “I want to see SNP MPs being in the House of Commons at Westminster arguing for and pushing for progressive change,” the first minister said. “I also don’t want to see David Cameron re-elected.”
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