NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday ramped up her criticism of Ed Miliband for saying he would rather keep the Tories in power than deal with the SNP, as Labour's desperate battle for survival in Scotland continued to dominate the election campaign.

 

On a helicopter tour of Highland seats won by the LibDems in 2010, the First Minister called the Labour leader's position "disastrous" for his party.

"It was a move which was as extraordinary as it was cack-handed," she said. "Because in Scotland all it will achieve is to galvanise even more support for the SNP.

"Ed Miliband's suggestion that he would rather let David Cameron walk back through the door of Number 10 than work with the SNP is utterly disastrous for Labour.

"People in Scotland would never, ever forgive the Labour party. Perhaps he and Labour's high command in London have simply given up on Scotland entirely."

She said Miliband's position showed he was not committed to "progressive politics".

Polls suggest the SNP could reduce Labour to a handful of Scots MPs on May 7, with the Nationalists becoming the third largest party in a hung parliament.

However Miliband yesterday repeated his refusal to cut a deal with the SNP, saying Scotland would get "no special deals" from him.

He accused Cameron of using the SNP to "distract voters" and claimed the Prime Minister had "entirely withdrawn from the central issues facing the country".

Miliband said: "The real battle is not a choice between two nations, as Cameron pretends, but between two sets of values - is the country run by an elite of the most rich and most powerful or is it run for working people?

"Cameron used to say the three letters that mattered to him were most NHS. Well in this election campaign they have been replaced by the SNP."

Miliband said he planned to introduce 10 bills in the Queen's Speech on May 27, including plans to freeze energy bills, repeal Tory NHS reforms and cut tuition fees.

"The SNP are not going to have leverage in a government led by me," he said.

"If it took coalition with the SNP to have a Labour government, there is not going to be a Labour government. I could not be be clearer than that.

"My Queen's speech will not be shaped in any way with the SNP in mind."

However the increasingly hardline, which suggests Labour is hoping to govern as a minority administration, was undermined by two former Labour First Ministers.

Lord Jack McConnell said it would be hard for Miliband to govern if Labour was not the biggest party in the Commons.

"Even if Cameron was to lose a few seats, if he still has a few seats more than Labour then public perception will be that he has won," he said. "Therefore the SNP argument that everybody else could gang up on him will not work. Anyone who tries to get around that, to get a deal to get a different PM, will be in trouble."

Henry McLeish said yesterday: "At the end of the day, Ed is not going to exclude himself from being prime minister by not talking to anyone."

Despite Miliband saying the election was not about the SNP, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy warned a vote for the SNP meant another referendum.

Campaigning with former PM Gordon Brown at Braehead near Glasgow, Murphy said the choice was between constitutional upheaval or a fairer economy.

"If Nicola Sturgeon gets her way Scotland won't have a single minister in the UK government but the SNP will have a new route to a referendum," he said.

"With Scottish votes Labour can get the Tories out of power, stop austerity, ban zero-hours contracts, fund the NHS and raise the minimum wage."

Brown added: "While the SNP get up thinking of how they can achieve independence, we get up thinking of how we can achieve social justice."

Campaigning with LibDem Treasury chief Danny Alexander in Inverness, former party leader Charles Kennedy called on Sturgeon to rule out another referendum.

"Divisions in communities, economic consequences and the government taking its eye off the ball are just some of the problems which come with a second referendum.

"Nicola Sturgeon should stop ducking and weaving and give a clear answer."

Cameron warned people not to vote tactically for the LibDems or Ukip.

"In the end, only one of two people can walk back through that door in Number 10 and be the Prime minister on Friday," he said.

"If you want your preferred prime minister, vote for your preferred prime minister."

He also insisted child benefit would not be cut as part of Tory plans to save £12bn from welfare, and launched a "pensioners' manifesto" promising a £7000 basic state pension by 2020.

Campaigning in his Sheffield Hallam seat, LibDem leader Nick Clegg said: "The question is not is it Ed Miliband or David Cameron going to walk into Number 10 - it's who is going to be there alongside."

Only the LibDems stood between a deal with Nigel Farage or Alex Salmond, he said.