Ruthless Sturgeon wants to make merry hell says Major
SIR JOHN Major clashed with Nicola Sturgeon last night over the dangers of a weak Labour government propped up by the SNP.
The former Conservative prime minister warned an alliance between the two parties would represent a ‘real and present danger’ to the future of the United Kingdom.
The Scottish Nationalists are on course to win 40 or more seats, meaning they could hold the balance of power at Westminster for the first time.
SNP leader Miss Sturgeon has ruled out any deal with the Tories and said she would be prepared to put Ed Miliband in Number Ten even if Labour wins fewer seats in a hung Parliament. She reacted furiously to Sir John’s remarks, describing them as ‘an affront to democracy’.
Mr Miliband, who has repeatedly refused to rule out relying on SNP support to get to Downing Street, accused the Tories of ‘setting one part of the UK against another’.
David Cameron and Boris Johnson will today step up warnings over a minority Labour government dependent on the SNP.
The London Mayor yesterday urged Ukip voters to ‘swing behind the Conservatives’ to avoid a ‘backward-looking Labour government’ propped up by ‘even more Leftwing’ Scottish Nationalists.
Campaigning in Thanet South, the Kent seat where Ukip leader Nigel Farage is standing, he claimed of the party’s supporters: ‘A lot want to come home to the Tories. Any gain by Ukip is a gain by Miliband. The risk is that would let in a Labour/SNP government which would be a catastrophe for
‘Real and present danger’
the country’. In a rare intervention yesterday, Sir John said a Labour-SNP partnership would mean Mr Miliband facing ‘ a daily dose of political blackmail’ from an SNP determined to ‘ create merry hell’ to end the Union.
But the Labour leader insisted: ‘ David Cameron is setting one part of the UK against another. That is dangerous.
‘He is talking up the SNP chances and not taking them on … he is demeaning his office, he is demeaning himself, he is demeaning those people he sends out on his behalf, and … I think it is threatening the integrity of the United Kingdom.’
Miss Sturgeon said Scotland would be heard ‘ more loudly and strongly at Westminster than ever before’, adding: ‘These are the same politicians that during the referendum campaign urged Scotland to lead the UK not leave … Now they appear to say Scotland’s voice should only be heard if we say the things they want us to say.’
Former first minister Alex Salmond insisted Sir John’s position was ‘fundamentally undemocratic’, adding that he was ‘ the man who … rather carelessly mislaid every single Tory seat in Scotland’.
Even a former Tory Cabinet minister expressed unease at his party’s tactics, claiming they risk undermining the future of the UK. Former Scottish secretary Lord Forsyth said talking up the threat posed by the SNP was ‘short-term and dangerous’.
But the Prime Minister last night said he was ‘not responsible for the fact the Labour Party has failed to get its message across in Scotland’.
Former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling told BBC Radio 4’s Today the prospect of Labour entering into a ‘destructive’ agreement with the SNP was ‘absolute nonsense’.