STURGEON: I CALL THE SHOTS NOW

As crowds hail her after leaders’ debate victory...

NICOLA Sturgeon was branded the Queen of Spin last night as her triumph in the TV election debate sent fear and recrimination through Labour ranks. The SNP leader was mobbed by activists as she returned to Edinburgh following Thursday night’s clash, in which Ed Miliband failed to challenge her wild claims and slick soundbites.

One senior Labour source said the party’s MPs facing potential wipeout in the election had their ‘heads in their hands’.

Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy is preparing a full assault against the First Minister as the focus turns to next week’s two Scottish TV debates.

South of the Border, the Tories were jubilant, as the unprecedented surge in SNP popularity could both rob Mr Miliband of an absolute majority in Westminster and scare English voters about the prospect of a minority Labour administration propped up by Left-wing Nationalists.

A Conservative insider said: ‘Ed Miliband and Nicola Sturgeon are the most dangerous duo in British politics: the man who would bankrupt Britain with the woman who would break up Britain.’

Miss Sturgeon again threatened to ‘lock the Tories out of government’ after May 7, even if Mr Cameron wins more seats.

She said the question for Mr Miliband was now ‘would he be prepared to vote with the SNP’ in the next Parliament, rather than the other way round.

Motorists yesterday sounded their horns and there were shouts of ‘Scotland’s Queen’ as Miss Sturgeon arrived back to campaign in Lib Dem-held Edinburgh West. She told supporters she had ‘enjoyed’ the debate, but added that she was ‘glad it’s over’. While activists told her she had

‘Candidates with their heads in their hands’

‘done them proud’, Miss Sturgeon said it was for others to judge if she had won the debate.

To Labour’s horror, one snap poll by YouGov after the seven-way ITV debate put the SNP leader well ahead of the six other politicians.

But Survation gave victory to Mr Cameron, ICM respondents chose Mr Miliband and ComRes reported a three-way tie between Mr Cameron, Mr Miliband and Ukip leader Nigel Farage.

Taking the averages, the Prime Minister was ahead on 22 per cent, followed by Mr Miliband on 21.5 per cent, Mr Farage on 21 per cent and Miss Sturgeon on 20 per cent.

The First Minister won plaudits for ditching the combativeness and arrogance of her predecessor Alex Salmond and offering ‘friendship’ to England, Wales and Northern Ireland – while her Welsh Nationalist colleague Leanne Wood ignored viewers elsewhere in the UK.

But, crucially, Miss Sturgeon was not challenged over her record in office. She spoke passionately about free university education, yet nobody highlighted the negative impact on the college sector. She claimed to have invested an extra £3billion in Scotland’s health service – overlooking Institute for Fiscal Studies research which shows that NHS spending has increased at a faster pace in England.

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: ‘If she’s the Queen of anything, she’s the Queen of Spin. In next week’s debates she will be the government, part of the establishment, and her record will come under scrutiny.’

A source close to Mr Murphy said he would come out fighting in the Scottish debates. ‘That’s where the contrast between the rhetoric and the record will be brought out.’

But a senior Labour strategist claimed Mr Miliband had received advice about attacking the SNP from the Left prior to Thursday’s debate, saying: ‘Ed should have challenged Sturgeon to name one policy that has redistributed money from rich to poor during her eight years in office. Just one.

‘When she went on free education, he should have said she did that at the cost of over 140,000 college places for working-class people.

‘I cannot understand why he did not do it. Why didn’t he say there are fewer people from working-class backgrounds going to university in Scotland than any other part of the United Kingdom?

‘It’s a mixture of being frightened of attacking her, of not knowing Scotland and thinking David Cameron is the prize, that she’s irrele- vant. There are Labour candidates in Scotland with their heads in their hands this morning.’

There are now questions about the wisdom of Mr Miliband insisting on taking part in another socalled ‘challengers’ TV debate’ with the SNP leader in a fortnight.

It will feature him, Miss Sturgeon and the leaders of Ukip, the Greens and Plaid Cymru – giving the First Minister another platform to attack the Labour leader, with Mr Cam- eron and Nick Clegg absent. ‘ The problem is that he now looks like he’s playing catch-up with Sturgeon,’ the source said. One Scotti s h Labour MP expressed ‘surprise’ at Mr Miliband’s tactics, saying: ‘ Sturgeon made a lot of assertions that actually aren’t true, like funding for the NHS, and she wasn’t pressed on full fiscal autonomy and what that means for Scotland.

‘I suspect Ed just thought, “This is my opportunity to get Cameron”. Now there will have to be much more scrutiny of Sturgeon in the Scottish TV debates.’

There will be three Scottish-only TV debates. STV will broadcast a four-way showdown on Tuesday between Miss Sturgeon, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy, Tory leader Ruth Davidson and Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie.

A day later, the politicians will also take part in a clash on the BBC, with Scottish Green leader Patrick Harvie and Scottish Ukip MEP David Coburn added to the panel.

A final four-way debate will be screened on the BBC next month.

Veteran Labour MP for Great Grimsby Austin Mitchell, who is standing down, said he had to concede Miss Sturgeon was ‘best’ in Thursday’s TV debate, watched by seven million viewers.

Tory chief whip Michael Gove said: ‘We saw in Nicola Sturgeon an impressive performance, but also a performance from someone well to the Left of not just the Centre ground of British politics, but well to the Left of Ed Miliband.’

Speaking i n Manchester, the Prime Minister said: ‘There is one person, one leader, one party that is offering the competence of a longterm plan that is working; and then there is a kind of coalition of chaos out there that wants more debt, spending and taxes.’

But former SNP leader Alex Salmond rejected Tory claims that a Labour/SNP alliance would be a ‘lethal cocktail’. He said: ‘I think the First Minister is wiping the floor with the Westminster old boys’ network.’

STRIP away the bright lights, the broadcasters’ histrionics and the glitzy game show podiums, and what did Britain – or at least those voters engaged enough to watch – actually learn from Thursday night’s TV election debate?

David Cameron – who doubtless just wanted to get it over with – was sure-footed but, once again, lacked passion or a clear, optimistic agenda.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg was his usual treacherous self, turning on his Coalition partner when it suited him while risibly trying to take credit for the Government’s increasingly formidable economic record.

And Ed Miliband? He had undergone so much coaching from his £10,000-a-day US guru that his strange mannerisms and repetition of the line ‘ If I am Prime Minister…’ made him look both weird

and arrogant. Over- r ehearsed and over- scripted sound-bites were traded over the NHS, zero-hours contracts and education.

Yet none of the three men had the courage to tell electors what cuts to benefits or services – or tax rises – will be needed to eliminate the nation’s still awesome deficit.

On mass immigration – consistently top of the public’s list of concerns – they could not get off the topic fast enough, mouthing meaningless platitudes about ensuring the system is ‘firm but fair’.

Which brings us to the winners of Thursday’s deeply superficial contest.

Nicola Sturgeon was always more polished and less irascible than Alex Salmond on TV and broad-brush statements suit a party big on sophistry and short on detail.

So the First Minister proved a more substantial figure than the hapless Mr Miliband i n every way and generally impressed those unfamiliar with her slick style-over-content approach.

Polls have long said the hard-Left SNP (bent on scrapping austerity and Trident, and, ultimately, breaking up the Union) was already on course to win almost every Scottish seat – wrecking Red Ed’s hopes of an overall Westminster majority. But so great was her dominance on Thursday that there can be little doubt it would be she – not Mr Miliband – calling the tune in the event of a minority Labour/ SNP Government.

Ukip’s Nigel Farage may have stuck doggedly to a single theme, but by highlighting the huge strain immigration is placing on the NHS, schools and housing he articulated the anxieties of the overwhelming majority of the public.

The other party leaders turned on him viciously for suggesting that it was not in Britain’s best interests to admit people from overseas who have HIV, and will therefore r equire hugely expensive treatment.

But we suspect that, in the real world, he will find broad agreement that there is a limit to how much strain an NHS failing to adequately care f or the i ndigenous population can take.

The truth is that, with 32 days to go, this election remains a lacklustre, phoney war which has yet to engage most of the public.

But, based on current polling, we face the deeply depressing scenario of another hung Parliament in which the minor parties – particularly the mercenary SNP – will be able to leverage grossly disproportionate power.

But, if the Tories are to break the deadlock in the polls and win outright, Mr Cameron must urgently inject some passion into his campaign – trumpeting the jobs miracle of a Government getting 1,000 people into work every day.

Crucially, he must also stop ducking the subject of immigration and start unveiling the kind of rigorous policies that can woo Britain’s voters.

The alternative, as the TV debate demonstrated, is the separatist Nicola Sturgeon running rings round Labour’s ineffectual leader to hold the balance of power at Westminster – and, terrifyingly, holding the UK to ransom.