ED: I’LL GRAB POWER EVEN IF I LOSE

He admits he may not win but STILL sets out condition for coalition

ED Miliband yesterday laid out his plan to rule even if he comes second in the election.

Despite admitting for the first time that Labour may not win tomorrow, he announced the most important of his ‘red lines’ for a minority government propped up by smaller parties.

His mentor, Lord Kinnock, warned that the ‘shy Tory voters’ who cost him victory in the 1992 election are likely to swing behind David Cameron’s Tories because they want tax cuts.

But he insisted a minority Labour government was still the most likely option.

That would mean Mr Miliband would be forced to enter into negotiations with the resurgent SNP to get legislation through the Commons.

There is a growing row over the legitimacy of a second-placed party trying to rule – something that has not happened since 1924.

Polls suggest the Tories are likely to win more seats than Labour but the SNP surge in Scotland means an alliance between Mr Miliband and Nicola Sturgeon could lock them out of power.

Yesterday George Osborne suggested the Tories would force Labour and the SNP to show their hands if they wanted to seek to join forces to eject a minority Conservative administration. ‘ The government remains the government until there is another government,’ Mr Osborne said.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Miliband acknowledged for the first time that he may not win a majority – saying scrapping ‘non dom’ tax status would be one Labour red line in any post-election deal.

‘We have our manifesto and I’m determined we implement our manifesto,’ he insisted. ‘But I’ll give you one symbol, non-dom status.

‘Any government I lead is going to get rid of non-dom status, people that live here, work here, permanently settled here and don’t pay taxes here.

‘I want one rule for all in this country, and that’s the kind of thing that my government – whatever government it is – will do.’

Even though independent economists say Labour’s plans would see it borrow £90billion more than the Conservatives – and never eliminate the deficit – Mr Miliband refused to accept he would add to the public debt. Asked if he would borrow more than the current government, the Labour leader claimed: ‘I don’t believe we would.’

Meanwhile, Lord Kinnock, in an interview with the left-wing New Statesman magazine, said: ‘There’s a superstition that somehow a Tory government will look after your pocket; it’s a triumph of propaganda over reality.

‘And people who tell pollsters that they’re not sure, or they’re not going to vote Conservative, will, in the privacy of the ballot booth, say: “To hell with it, I’ll stick with what I know because they say they’re going to cut my taxes”,’ the former Labour leader said.

Lord Kinnock insisted Mr Miliband was still likely to be the head of a minority government that would be reduced to ‘gathering majorities for specific issues’. ‘Ed will manage the Commons, very able people with him will manage the Commons. I don’t think there are many other options that are realistic or desirable,’ he said.

‘Patently no coalition or concession to the Nats; and any arrangement with the Liberals would have to be on Labour terms.’

Andy Burnham, Labour’s health spokesman, confirmed that his party would seek to rule even if it came second. ‘We have said clearly that we want to implement a Labour Queen’s Speech and we will do whatever we can to make that possible,’ he said.

It emerged last week that Lord Kinnock is a regular source of ‘wisdom and advice’ for Mr Miliband.

His son Stephen, who is standing as a Labour candidate in Wales, said his father had helped drag the party back to its ‘true core values’. But Tory party chairman Grant Shapps said: ‘Even Neil Kinnock – one of Ed Miliband’s closest allies – has conceded “we’re not all right” and that Ed can’t win a majority on Thursday. That means he will be propped up by the SNP, with Nicola Sturgeon pulling the strings and making demands on every vote.’

‘No concession to the Nationalists’