DAVID Cameron has warned against a "horror movie" scenario of a Labour Government at Westminster propped up by the SNP, as he issued a rallying call to Scottish party members ahead of the General Election.

 

The Prime Minister, speaking at the Scottish Conservative conference in Edinburgh, said that Ed Miliband and the Nationalists were already "half way up the aisle" and that a vote for any party other than the Tories risked "the very real prospect of Alex Salmond coming in through the back door".

He pledged to make devolution work through a strong Scottish Parliament, but added that he wanted to make "everyone in the UK truly proud of the UK and confident about our future together" five months after 1.6 million Scots voted to leave Britain.

"We didn't fight tooth and nail to win that referendum so we could preserve some historical relic," Mr Cameron told delegates. "We did it because we knew that the nations of the United Kingdom could together be a world beating team.

"But in the end, in the long-term, the UK won't be held together because the pieces of the jigsaw fit together, because the machinery of Holyrood and Westminster works well. It will be held together in people's hearts, by belief and pride, in the bigger picture of who we are and what we can be."

The address came after David Mundell, the Conservatives' only Scottish MP, warned that the former First Minister Mr Salmond would act as a "self-styled puppet master" to both Ed Miliband and his successor Nicola Sturgeon if he held power at UK level, and set about "destroying Westminster from within".

Polls have suggested that the SNP may well hold the balance of power following May's General Election, with the Conservatives and Labour unlikely to win a majority. SNP leader Ms Sturgeon has indicated that she would be willing to work with Labour, while Mr Miliband has not ruled out a deal.

Mr Cameron said that an alliance between Labour and the SNP at Westminster would be a "unique, unprecedented coalition of the people who would break up our country and the people who would bankrupt our country."

He added: "If you vote for anyone else apart from the Conservatives, you are voting for this outcome: Labour in Government. Ed Miliband in Downing Street and the very real prospect of Alex Salmond coming in through the back door. Like a horror movie - he's back.

"Only this time - he's not running Scotland. He would have the decisive say in running a country he wants to see abolished - our United Kingdom."

He also launched an attack on the First Minister's call to offer an alternative to austerity, saying it was morally unjustifiable to rack up debt and leave it for future generations to repay.

He said that his Government had created 100 new jobs a day in Scotland since he took office as he presented his party as the one on the side of working people. The Prime Minister used his visit to Scotland to announce that a £859 million deal to build Navy frigates on the Clyde had been signed, a move he said would sustain 600 jobs in Scotland. He concluded: "We've won for Britain before - now let's win for Britain again."

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour claimed that Mr Cameron wanted voters to back the SNP, as it would increase his chances of getting back into Downing Street. Margaret Curran, Labour's shadow Scottish Secretary, has said that she believes Mr Cameron is "secretly pleased" at the prospect of voters backing the SNP in large numbers.

SNP Depute Leader Stewart Hosie said: "The Tories have been rejected in election after election in Scotland, and only a strong team of SNP MPs will be able to exert power at Westminster on behalf of the people of Scotland - standing up for Scottish interests, and opposing the Tory obsession with austerity.

"The Tories are right to be concerned that a strong SNP vote will stand in the way of their damaging agenda."