MAY: SNP/LAB PACT ‘WORST CRISIS SINCE ABDICATION’
English voters would ‘not accept legitimacy’ of an alliance Poll: Four in 10 Ukip backers will switch to Tories to stop deal
BRITAIN will face its biggest constitutional crisis since Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 if Ed Miliband runs Britain with Nicola Sturgeon, Theresa May has warned.
In a dramatic intervention in the Election campaign, the Home Secretary questioned whether English voters would accept the ‘legitimacy’ of a Labour Government backed by Scottish Nationalists.
And she compared the effects of such a pact to the way Britain’s governing class was paralysed for months in the 1930s because of King Edward VIII’s affair with American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
After being told the public would not
accept Simpson as Queen, the crisis was only resolved when Edward abdicated.
By questioning the ‘legitimacy’ of a Miliband Government backed by Sturgeon, Mrs May has raised the stakes in the row over the prospect of Labour teaming up with the SNP to rule the UK.
She believes that English voters would not accept Sturgeon’s party having vital power over their lives.
The Conservatives believe that fear of a Labour-SNP alliance could persuade floating voters to switch to the Tories and keep Miliband out of Downing Street.
Mrs May told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If we saw a Labour Government propped up by SNP it could be the biggest constitutional crisis since the abdication. It would mean Scottish MPs who have no responsibility for issues like health, education and policing in their own constituencies [as they are devolved to the Scottish Parliament] making decisions on those issues for England and Wales.
‘Rightly, people in England would say, “hang on a minute why are Scottish Nationalist MPs allowed to do that?”’
Mrs May’s comments were underlined by a new poll which showed voters believe Miliband would be Sturgeon’s puppet under any coalition deal.
The poll also found that, in such an eventuality, English voters would be ready to turn the tables on the Scots by opting to break away from the Union and declare independence for England and Wales combined.
According to the Survation poll for The Mail on Sunday, a third of UK voters would consider a Miliband-Sturgeon government to be ‘illegitimate,’ echoing Mrs May’s warning.
Explaining why she feared an English backlash, Mrs May argued: ‘Miliband would be in government on the coat-tails of Sturgeon and Alex Salmond. They would be calling the tune – people who don’t want the UK to exist and want to destroy our country.
‘There would be a very real feeling was this was something people did not want to see, had not voted for and would find very difficult to accept. It would raise difficult questions about legitimacy. A lot of English people would question that.’
Mrs May suggested such tensions could be exacerbated by Sturgeon’s apparent determination to boss Miliband about. Scotland’s First Minister had ‘constantly challenged’ him in the TV debates – and could be expected to step up her demands if he gave her a share of power.
‘She has been setting out very clearly “I will put Ed Miliband in Downing Street”. She’s very clear about what her list of requirements would be. Who’s to say what would be added to that by the time they came to those negotiations?’
Asked if she agreed Ms Sturgeon had impressive qualities, defiant Mrs May hit back: ‘There’s nothing impressive about somebody who wants to break up the UK.’
She insisted it had nothing to do with female rivalry. ‘I don’t look at whether she’s a female or how she dresses. What concerns me about Nicola Sturgeon is what she represents. She represents a real danger to the UK economy and the future of the UK itself.’
In a separate development, the Conservatives received a boost from Lib Dem Cabinet Minister Vince Cable who said a Miliband-Sturgeon government would be ‘very dangerous and completely unacceptable’.
Echoing Mrs May’s comments, Mr Cable told this newspaper: ‘We can’t let small extreme tendencies dominate the country. I speak as someone who has lived in Scotland. I have Scottish children. We could not work with people committed to break up the UK.’
‘A real danger to the future of the UK’