ED MILIBAND’S shadow cabinet ministers are preparing themselves for defeat in the general election because they fear the party will be wiped out in Scotland.
The Labour leader has ordered his most senior MPs to flood into Scotland for the final weeks of the campaign, a repeat of the saturation tactics deployed in the frantic final days of the Scottish independence referendum last year.
In a desperate attempt to boost Mr Miliband’s flagging chances, Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, and Alistair Darling, the former chancellor, are both expected to take on roles in Labour’s campaign north of the border.
But senior party sources said Labour’s Scottish MPs remained deeply downcast, while shadow ministers warned that the chances of even being the largest party in another hung parliament are slipping away.
Successive opinion polls have shown a huge swing away from Labour to the Scottish National Party among voters in Scotland.
Labour currently holds 41 Scottish seats but could lose 29 of these, and hold only 12, results from the polling company ICM suggested last week. The SNP, meanwhile, was on course to take 43 of Scotland’s 59 seats.
Mr Miliband has been under pressure to rule out any deal with the SNP, which could hold the balance of power in the Commons if no party wins an overall majority.
Business figures and others have warned that a tie-up between Labour and the SNP would risk undermining the economy with higher public spending and compromising national security with cuts to Trident nuclear weapons, which are based in Scotland.
A senior shadow cabinet source said Labour’s hopes of forming the next government were fading. “If we could somehow sort out Scotland and hold on to 20 seats, we could be the largest party in the Commons after the election,” the source said.
“But it’s not looking good. All our MPs have their heads down. It’s not their fault. There is just this massive swing to the SNP.” Another shadow minister warned that victory in Scotland appeared to be impossible for Labour.
Mr Brown and Mr Darling, both of whom played leading roles in the No campaign, will be used to help promote Mr Miliband’s cause over the next five and a half weeks, the shadow minister said.
“It would be mad not to use them, because they are among the few people Scots will listen to,” the source said.
Nicola Sturgeon yesterday issued a direct challenge to Labour to “join forces” with the SNP to “lock David Cameron out of Downing Street” if the two parties together have more seats than the Tories after the election.
The First Minister called on Mr Miliband to match the SNP’s commitment to stopping a minority Conservative government “even getting off the ground” by bringing it down in a vote of confidence.
Speaking at the SNP conference in Glasgow, she warned Mr Miliband that rejecting her offer would be the “final nail in the political coffin” of Scottish Labour.
As she delivered the speech, Mr Brown warned that she was offering one hand of friendship to the UK with a fist behind her back to deliver the “knockout blow to break Britain apart”.
TIM ROSS
Senior Political Correspondent