I’ll oust Cameron, pledges Sturgeon

New SNP leader fires warning at Prime Minister in maiden speech

NICOLA Sturgeon will today vow to kick David Cameron out of Downing Street after next year’s General Election.

In her first speech as SNP leader, she will draw the battle lines for May’s contest with an audacious bid to convince Scots they do not need to vote Labour to keep the Tories out – ‘because that’s what we’ll do’.

Miss Sturgeon yesterday seized control of her party as Alex Salmond’s 20-year reign as leader came to an emotional end.

In a defiant final speech at the party’s annual conference in Perth, the outgoing First Minister threatened Mr Cameron that Scots will ‘take matters into our own democratic hands’ if Holyrood does not receive sweeping new powers.

To thunderous applause, Mr Salmond said his successor would go down in history as the woman who destroyed the 307-yearold Union between Scotland and England.

Close to tears, Miss Sturgeon heaped praise on her ‘friend’, ‘mentor’, and ‘wonderful leader’ who resigned after the defeat in September’s independence referendum.

She will today promise the SNP will not enter into coalition with the Tories at Westminster if there is another hung parliament, but will consider a deal with other parties to stop Mr Cameron returning to office. In

‘Another referendum isn’t an option’

return, she will demand the power to hold another referendum, despite repeatedly promising voters that their verdict would stand for a ‘generation’.

Although the SNP has surged in the polls since the decisive No vote, many in the party fear Labour’s core message of ‘vote SNP, get a Tory government’ will hurt them at the ballot box in May.

Miss Sturgeon will say today: ‘This is the biggest con-trick in Scottish politics and we must not fall for it again. Scotland did vote Labour at the last General Election, but we still ended up with the Tories. And if the people of England vote Tory again next May, it won’t matter how we vote.

‘Of course, perhaps this time Scotland’s votes will count. Scotland could well hold the balance of power in a Westminster parliament with no overall majority.

‘If that happens, I promise you this: You won’t need to have voted Labour to keep the Tories out, because that’s what we’ll do. My pledge to Scotland today is this – the SNP will never put the Tories i nto government.’

Insiders said the Nationalists would try to reach an informal deal with Labour and other parties to keep the Tories out – even if they were the largest party.

Mr Salmond is widely expected to launch a bid to return to Westminster, where he hopes to act as the ‘ kingmaker’ in postelection negotiations.

Before the First Minister took to the stage yesterday, his supporters were left in tears by a ‘This Is Your Life’-style video of his extraordinary political career. Mr Salmond was first elected leader in 1990, resigning in 2000 before returning in 2004 to lead his party to power.

He delivered a defiant last speech, in which he once again overlooked the verdict of the Scottish people and declared: ‘Scotland will become an independent nation.’

He delighted conspiracy theorists by saying new oil fields have ‘suddenly been discovered in the North Sea’ since the referendum and claimed it was only a ‘last-minute bribe’ of further powers from Westminster leaders which ended his dream of breaking-up Britain.

‘The UK parties should be in no doubt – give Scots the power we demand, or Scotland will vote to take that power,’ he said.

Despite leaving a divided nation as his legacy, Mr Salmond complained of a ‘divisive’ Tory agenda at Westminster ‘of which we should have no part’.

‘So let the message be very clear from this hall and this country to the Prime Minister – delay, prevari- cate, block or obstruct the implementation of what Scotland was promised, and Scotland will take matters into our own democratic hands,’ he said.

The word ‘democratic’ was added late and does not appear in a copy of the speech given to journalists.

Asked earlier this week about what his demands would be in any deal to prop up Ed Miliband, the First Minister said: ‘It wouldn’t be the greatest tragedy in the world, for example, for Westminster to accept the reality that the Scottish parliament should run its own elec- tions, its own referendum.’ But a senior Labour source said last night: ‘Another referendum i sn’t an option.’

Mr Salmond officially remains Scotland’s First Minister until Wednesday, when MSPs will vote in Miss Sturgeon as his successor. She will then be sworn in at the Court of Session on Thursday and is expected to meet the Queen within days of her appointment.

Mr Salmond told his successor yesterday: ‘Nicola, your contribution to where this party now stands has already been immense. Your future contribution – I have no doubt – will be to make history.’