Miliband and Sturgeon are match
ge t t i n g a clear lead, To r i e s we r e p i n n i n g their hopes of a breakthrough on voters shying away from a Labour-SNP alliance.
That prospect s e e me d more likely as more opinion polls showed the SNP would crush Labour in Scotland and shadow health secretary Andy Burnham admitted that a Labour government would “talk to people” after the election. He backed shadow Commons leader Angela Eagle, who said Labour would talk to other parties SNP.
Mr Cameron devoted a speech on the economy to an all-out attack on the prospect of post-election horse trading across the Scottish border if a minority Labour government was reliant on Scottish nationalist support.
“Make no mistake, if Labour and the SNP get into power, you are going to see an alliance between a party that wants to spend, borrow and tax more with a party that wants to spend, borrow and tax even more,” he told an audience in Crewe.
“It might be a match made in heaven for them but it is a match made in hell for the British economy.”
Mr Cameron said Ms Sturgeon would exact a high price for her backing, which would see spending in England squeezed and borrowing and taxes rise. A senior Tory said that meant “hitting Londoners with more t axes... millions of people across our capital will pay the price.”
Mr Burnham, asked about Ms Eagle’s remarks, said: “Well you would talk to people, I mean we’re all going to have to see what happens on May 8.”
Ms Sturgeon was today launching her party’s manifesto in Scotland. Despite claims from Westminster that it plans to break up the UK, the SNP has said it wants to be a “positive” force in Parliament.It released a new c ampaign poster at the weekend featuring Ms Sturgeon and the words: “My vow is to make Scotland stronger at Westminster”.
The SNP claims that its manifesto is a programme for UK-wide reform, given the “real possibility” that the party’s MPs will hold the balance of power in the Commons. It said the “centrepiece” of this approach is the end of austerity cuts, and instead spending increases of 0.5 per cent a year.
It also commits the party to take part in votes on major issues south of the border such as a law “to restore the NHS in England to a fully public, publicly-accountable service”.
The party said it would reverse the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, adding that this would “also protect Scotland’s budget by stopping the process of pri-
including the vati sation and patient charging in England”.The SNP also highlighted proposals to “cancel the renewal of Trident”.
Mayor Boris Johnson said it would be “nuts” to hand the SNP a position of power over a country it sought to break