British prime minister David Cameron has warned that a Labour/Scottish National Party alliance threatens the break-up of the United Kingdom, less than a year after a majority of Scots rejected independence in the referendum.
Amid signals that Scottish first minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has been warmly received by large numbers of English voters, Mr Cameron has insisted on painting a possible Labour/SNP pact "as a coalition of chaos".
“They don’t believe in the Westminster parliament, they don’t believe in the United Kingdom. They would not be coming to Westminster to help our country. They are coming to Westminster to break up our country,” said Mr Cameron.
Demanding that Labour leader Ed Miliband rules out accepting support from the SNP under any guise after May 7th, Mr Cameron said the idea that Labour could survive in office but be dependent upon the SNP "is a frightening prospect".
No pre-election pact
Mr Miliband
refuses to accept calls from the SNP leader for a pre-election pact because he is struggling to safeguard as many of Labour’s Scottish seats as possible – but, equally, he is not going to turn away subsequent support, if the numbers make that necessary.
Illustrating one possible route, Labour's leader in the Commons, Angela Eagle, said if it forms "the largest party", Labour would put a queen's speech to MPs – its programme for government for a year – and put it into effect "if it gets through a vote".
Pressed, Ms Eagle said: “We’ll speak to any party that has got representation in the House of Commons in order to try and build a majority for a queen’s speech that the country desperately needs for a change of government.”
Entering the third week of campaigning, the Conservatives and Labour remain stuck in the low to mid-30s in support – though there is no doubt that Labour has become significantly more optimistic in the last number of days.
Dog’s dinner
In a call to those tempted to vote Liberal Democrat and Ukip, Mr Cameron told them that such a vote “takes Ed Miliband and Nicola Sturgeon a step closer to Downing Street – and our government, economy and country a step closer to chaos”.
“Every time Ed Miliband wants to pass a Bill, he will have Nicola Sturgeon making a series of demands on him – the hostage-taker asking for more borrowing, more taxes and more welfare . . . government would end up as a dog’s dinner of haggling and backroom deals,” he said.
Despite doubts about the effectiveness of the attacks upon the SNP, the Conservatives insist that it is coming up unprompted in key battleground English constituencies, where just hundreds of votes could decide the winner.
